---- From chapter 7 ----

J: Someone at the coffee shop overheard Timmy's order and said "what the fuck just do cocaine"

----

Tim sighed as grabbed his coffee from the counter where the barista had placed it, holding it close to his chest and cast a forlorn glare to the women who commented on his order before heading out into the street, not waiting for Jason. He jumped onto the hood of the car, parked close to the curb in a no-parking spot on the busiest street in the city, taking out his phone to scroll through Twitter, the godawful website it was.

Jason appeared in front of him before he had even gotten to the good discourse.

"You couldn't have waited thirty seconds?"

"Nope, we're already late for Dickie's new-years party."

Jason rolled his eyes, one hand pulling his sunglasses off from over his eyes and nestling them in his hair, revealing the fact that one of them was bruised deeply. "Dickie's new-years party is late."

"Fashionably late," Tim corrected, taking a sip of his coffee and swirling around the caramel-y taste in his mouth, washing it against the backs of his teeth.

"Late is late," Jason argued, "and I've got the keys, you can't go anywhere without me anyways."

"The barista was hitting on you," Tim complained abruptly, resettling on the hood of the car when Jason shoved his legs apart to stand between them, setting his own coffee down next to Tim.

"The barista is a middle-aged lesbian," he said flatly.

Tim stuck his bottom lip out, looking past Jason to watch the traffic inch by. "You think people won't swap sexualities to be with you? I did."

"Are you flirting or starting a fight?" Jason asked, his hand curling around Tim's jaw, large amounts of strength hiding behind the slightly forceful touch as Tim resisted for a moment before turning his face back towards Jason. Jason dipped his head down, pressing their lips together. Tim arched upwards, parting his lips so Jason could chase the sweetness of his coffee. He let Jason bite at his bottom lip for a moment, then crossed his ankle around Jason's legs, pulling him in closer until his knees knocked against the grill of the car and Jason pulled back with a hiss.

He snickered under his breath at Jason's glare, the familiar glint of brattiness entering his eyes as his body became limber and tense, easily maneuvering out of the half-pin Jason had him in.

He danced around to the driver's side of the car, holding up a set of keys and spinning them around his finger.

"Now who's got keys?"

"You can't drive," Jason said dryly.

Tim stuck his tongue out, the action hanging in the air for a moment while Jason stared at him. Eventually, Tim gave on, tossing the keys to Jason and stomping around the backside of the car, sliding into the passenger seat while Jason jammed the keys into the ignition and the car rumbled to life.

A few hiccups aside- "Did you just skip ABBA? Get the fuck out of this car."- they made it into Blüdhaven city limits in no fewer pieces than when they left Gotham.

In the roughly thirty minutes it took to get from one to another, Tim had finished his coffee and moved on to criticizing Jason's CD collection, earning a harsh hand on his thigh for the majority of the ride, keeping him from squirming or fiddling with the radio.

They paid for the expensive on-street parking then headed up to Dickie's apartment, their wallets free of any spare change they had, Jason's superpower of always being able to find good parking not saving the quarters they fed into the meter.

They took the private elevator to Dickie's penthouse apartment, Tim waving at the secretary working the front desk as they stepped into the metal box and ascended the first hundred floors, Jason's hand finding its way into the back pocket of Tim's jeans on the way.

The doors opened with a ding just as Dickie was saying "Okay," Tim and Jason drifting into the room, their presence noticed immediately.

"JayTim!" Dickie greeted, "Great, now we have even number of people. Timmy, you're on that team," he pointed to the side of the room where Wally and Cass were already standing, chatting idly, "Jason you're with Babs."

"Heh," Jason chuckled, looking at the members of each team, joining Barbara and Kon on the other side of the room, "tops vs. bottoms. What are we playing?"

"How dare you say I'm a bottom?" Tim challenged immediately, crossing his arms.

"Timmy," Barbara called, her voice low and on the edge of intense, "Look at me." Tim's head swivelled to look at her on instinct, faster than he could comprehend. He realized his mistake at the same time.

"That's why," she said, laughter mixing with everyone else's.

Tim scowled, "I hate it here. I am going to kill every single one of you."

At that moment, Roy emerged from the kitchen, "Wally, did you eat all the jolly ranchers?"

"No," Wally answered, looking up from his conversation with Cass.

"Your mouth is blue."

"I gave a smurf a blowjob."

Tim laughed, more out of shock than amusement, while Barbara and Dickie stifled their chuckles in hopes of dodging Roy's coming wrath.

Roy narrowed his eyes, welding the empty ceramic bowl like a weapon- which, in his hands, it was- "I hate you. So much. Timmy's right. Pick a God and pray to it."

"Bury me shallow," Wally retorted immediately, straightening up as if he had any hope of closing the height difference between them, "I'll be back."

"Boys," Dickie chided loudly, stepping around Barbara with an intentional rise in his tone. "Violence for violence is the rule of beasts," he chided.

"Do you guys just speak in Tumblr?" Jason asked loudly, having situated himself on the couch in front of the television. Tim huffed, clinging to the side of the room to drop into Jason's lap, blocking his view of the tv and tugging on his hair every time he tried to complain about it.

"Yes, it's a personality trait," Dickie answered, turning away from Roy and Wally briefly before looking back, "now what do we say?"

"Sorry," Wally and Roy mumbled together, Roy holding the bowl at his side instead of over his head like a madman.

"Good," Dickie crossed his arms over his chest, nodding to himself, "now kiss."

As if they shared one mind, Roy and Wally both bent down, the distance significantly larger for Roy, and pecked Dickie's cheeks to the soundtrack of various "gay!"'s.

Tim glanced down at Jason, who cupped his face, rubbing his thumb across his bottom lip.

"Your lip is bleeding," he said.

Tim's tongue darted out to wet his lips, teasing the blood and realizing for the first time he was unable to stop smiling even when Jason kissed him.

People like them, with ribcages like the rings of Saturn, were built on these moments of collision, where they come together and enforce words like Heroic on each other. They are melted together, their joints welded into place these careful, laboured moments- where one of them wreaks of heaven or hell when one of them digs their nails in tight, plants their heels, insists stay, tossing the role back and forth like folie à deux - forcing empathy and love into a mind with a hole in it, it keeps them entire. Whole. It makes it less to bear.

"Can all of you stop being stupid in love?" Kon asked from the doorway, leather jacket thrown over his shoulder and a bottle of wine held loosely at his side.

His other hand, tucked in into his pocket, came into the air when Tim jumped up and tucked himself to his side, "Kon!"

Everyone else gathered around the door, greeting Kon with fist bumps and brief hugs.

"Can we play now?" Cass asked, monotone, her hands moving in ASL as she spoke.

"Yes, we can," Dickie replied, signing back and pushing on Roy's shoulders until everyone else followed them deeper into the living room, sitting in a circle on the floor while Wally brought empty glasses out for those that didn't already have them.

"What are we playing?" Jason asked, accepting the glass that Wally handed to him and the alcohol that followed.

Tim held up his hand, waiting. Wally huffed, leaning back down to fill Tim's glass. "One, minor," he compromised.

Tim settled in, tipping his glass forwards in a small gesture of cheers before taking a sip.

"We're playing poker," Barbara answered, her hands above her head in the process of putting her hair in a bun.

Dickie elaborated, holding up a deck of playing cards "In teams. If one person on your team folds, so do you. You fold, you drink. Hope you guys can count cards."

"Hm," Kon hummed, reaching for the deck to deal everyone in, "pog."

----

Jason sighed as he lowered himself onto the bed, a headache already starting in the back of his mind. He buried his face in the pillow, groaning quietly.

He looked up at the sounds of clicking, rolling onto his side to take in Tim's form, stripped down to his boxers and hunched over his Nintendo switch.

"Are you really playing animal crossing on New Years'?"

"Isabelle gave me a glowstick."

Jason chuckled, laying back down but turning his head so he could watch as Tim's character ran around the screen, chuckling when he got stung by wasps until his eyes grew heavy. He tugged on Tim's hip persistently until Tim obeyed, quitting his game and shuffling down until they were at the same level.

He fit his hand over Tim's hip, crooking his fingers against the space between bones.

"Have a good night?" Tim mumbled, conscious of the other people sleeping in the apartment and Jason's coming hangover.

"I stole Dickie's wine opener," Jason confessed quietly.

Tim chuckled, "I took Roy's vape."

They laughed. They laughed and were whole. Their disjointedness had been cured, bony elbows righted by their quiet laughter and the sounds of someone else in the kitchen, ruffling through the silverware drawer.