Chronic Hug Deficiency (JaySteph)

[shauds]

Title: Chronic Hug Defeciency

Fandom: DC Comics

Prompt: #022 Tactile

Character/Pairing: Jason Todd, Stephanie Brown, JaySteph

Rating: PG

Word Count: 2773

Summary: Stephanie's a pretty tactile person, and she's decided a certain ex-Robin could use some tactileness in his life. Which works out great, because she could use a certain ex-Robin in hers.
Authors Notes/Disclaimer: I love JaySteph, so, so much. Requested by flywiththegryffindork on tumblr.

They've met before, of course, but that was always just fun comm chatter. The first time Jason meets her in person is that week Riddler decided to do a throwback to being an actual threat and set up a dozen or so deathtraps around the city. He’d agreed to give them a hand because deathtraps trumps pissing contest with Bruce, and it was nice for once to be handed intell instead of either beating it out of thugs or stealing it.

It’s not that she appears out of nowhere or anything, he sees her coming, it’s just that she doesn’t look either pissed or any more nervous than he’s used to having people around him. He just assumes she’s going to keep going to meet with one of the Bats huddled together on the far side of the cave and ignores her. Which is… well he thinks is a mistake when her arms wrap around his torso and he jumps like a cat facing off against a very large dog and drops the helmet he had tucked under his arm. A dog that’s warm and smells like vanilla and is squeezing him arm enough to feel through his body armor.

”You’re Jason huh?” She pulls back with a grin on her face before he can react further, squints up at him for a couple moments, studying him with her hands clasped in front of her, not reaching for any weapons. It takes her little over a second for her shoulders to hitch it a shrug he cant’s quite decipher, then hold out a hand. “I’m Steph.”

”Uh.” Jason blinks at the hand hovering between them, then turns to where the Bats are watching the exchange, and then back to her almost hopeful expression. She smiles at him and Jason works against the sudden heaviness in his arm to clap her hand in his own and give it one firm shake.

The smile morphs to a full on grin then and Jason almost wants to close his eyes for how bright it is. “Nice to meet ya.” She gently punches his shoulder when she walks by him and vanishes in the direction of the showers.

”Did she just hug me?” He asks no one in particular and indeterminable amount of time later. A couple of them erupt into chuckles, Jason’s still too dazed to figure out which and beat them down for it.

***

The next time it happens, Jason’s staking out a meet between the two little upstart gangs who’ve figured his old territory in Crime Alley is up for the taking. Killing them’s not the plan, but it won’t hurt to remind them what a good shot he is, then bankrupt them, make a real good example. He’s just waiting for the right moment to pull the trigger on this brand new, never before used, high-accuracy LA115A3 he found in his safe-house a couple days ago.

Talks are heating up, plenty of shouting, and he’s starting to worry he won’t have to do anything to break apart their little alliance when there’s the twang of a line pulling taut and he catches sight of an inky black cape dropping down behind him.

”Not gonna kill em.” He rolls his eyes, expecting Bruce. Instead, he only just manages to flick the safety on before he’s, knocked aside by the sheer unexpectedness more than the force off the half-assed tackle from behind. The tackle hug. He freezes up. So, not Bruce then.

”Hi Hood.” She tightens the hug minutely and presses her cheek against his helmet, then pulls back to squat down beside him. “So what’s the situation here?” She pulls out some binoculars.

”What are you doing?” The phantom feeling of her weight pressed against him strains his voice, but the modulator evens it out for him, and thank god for that. Makes it easier to not have to deal with it.

”Backup.” Her tongue pokes out from behind her glossy lips as she adjusts the zoom on her binoculars, then settles in to watch. “Perks of the whole teamwork thing.” She turns to offer him a grin. “Pretty great huh?”

Jason turns quickly back to his scope so he doesn’t have to look at her anymore. “Don’t need back up.” The shouting has died down and they wannabe crimelords are talking like human beings again, almost look like they’re going to come to some kind of an agreement, almost time for Jason to mess that up.

”Yeah you and every other Batboy.” She scoffs and scooches a little closer to him, close enough that, even though it’s probably all in his head, he can feel the warmth radiating off her.

He does his best to ignore the heat he feels creeping up his neck in response and tries to focus on his job.

***

It happens again, and again. Every time they cross paths, even if only for a few moments even if it’s in the middle of a smack down with a jumble of thugs, she will, without fail hug, or attempt to hug him. Jason checks his pockets, but never finds that they’ve been picked, he never finds that any trackers have been slipped onto any part of his body. She’s never taken advantage of his shock, either before or after to attack him. There is no logical or illogical reasoning he can find behind why she keeps doing this to him.

When he brings it up to Dick one time when they’re stuck in a small lifeboat together, escaping the a yacht that’s just gone up in smoke, and flames, all he gets is laughed at, and Dick gets thrown over the edge of the boat to swim himself to safety. Asshole.

The most confusing part of the whole thing is that, once he’s crossed off any potentially malicious intent, Jason finds he doesn’t mind. He comes to expect when his eyes catch sight of her, and he doesn’t look for paths of avoiding the contact.

“Hey there Jay.” She greets one night while Jason’s making use of the Batcomputer for some chemical analyses he doesn’t have the patience to do in his own right now. Her arms slink around his shoulders and stay there, as she rests her head on top of his. No one calls him Jay anymore and Jason feels warmth building in his chest that has only a little to do with her body heat. “You working on new drugs to build your empire on?”

Jason snorts and, without thinking about what he’s doing, he leans his head back to press against her collarbone. He should be offended, shouldn’t he? He’d be offended if any of the others made a joke like that. At least, he thinks he would. He doesn’t know right now. “Shh”, he presses a finger against her lips, “don’t tell the others.”

She laughs at him and drops her head to his shoulder, she’s resting it on her arms, but he can still feel the warmth, the cool puffs of her breaths against his neck. She smells more of vanilla tonight than usual, or maybe it’s just that she’s so close, and she’s not moving away this time. He spends more time in front of the computer that night that he’s planned on, but somehow, as long as she’s there, he keeps coming up with just one more thing he needs to use it for.

Even when that one more thing is this kitten video he absolutely has to watch, she insists, her lips very, very close to his. He could just… He shakes the thought off before it’s had a chance to fully form and quickly moves on to the next video.

”Hey,” she flicks his ear after a while and Jason turns to her, tries to make it look begrudging. “Everyone’s asleep, you wanna raid the kitchen?”

He glances at the computer and the muppets music video still playing on the screen, then lets his eyes linger on her. “Eh, what the hell.” He shrugs and only flinches a little when her arm links with his as though he needs to be lead upstairs.

***

The first time he actually returns her hug is another time he’s not really thinking, or maybe he’s thinking too hard. He’s sitting on the edge of the highest point of Wayne Tower, watching steam rise up off the styrofoam cup of soup he picked up off a street vendor as it twists it the wind, then dissipates into nothingness against the overcast skies, gone forever. It looks like it should be warm, but he barely feels it, not even when he can bring himself to sip on the salty liquid.

It’s not a day he wants to spend around them. When she shows up, this time without a word of greeting, just to sit down next to him and squeeze her way under his arms to tuck herself against his side, a huge part of him wants to push her away. To let out the all the anger and frustration and bucket loads of emotion he’s gotten so good at hiding behind sarcasm in the name of peace. The bigger part of him though, the part that’s exhausted by a night of phantom pains and laughter in his head; it’s like a black hole that sucks up the rest of everything else and leaves him too cold for the soup to work against.

That’s the part that drops the cup and turns to fold him over her, wrap his arms around her and press her head into the crook of his shoulder and just hold her, just absorb what little he can of the suns worth of warmth she has to offer.

”Why do you keep doing…?” His voice hitches and he stifles it by burying his face in her hair.

”You have a chronic hug deficiency, I like hugs.” Her voice is soft, but steady as her fingers brush against the pulse at his neck, then grip his jacket. “’Nd I like you. Works out.”

Jason tries to laugh, the only response he can think of, but it turns into a sob, and he’s hard pressed to make any other kind of sound for a while.

When he sees her again a week later, neither of them bring it up, but she does give a short, soft, happy squeal when he hugs her back.

***

”Jason.” Bruce says, he’d been about to pull his cowl over his head, but he pauses when Jason doesn’t immediately run off to get started on the job he said he’s help them with – installing some surveillance equipment in some dumbass’s crappy apartment.

”Relax, I got all night.” Jason’s resting against the computer console, slapping Bruce’s big chair in lazy circles while he watches the driveway, listening for the near silent engine of Batgirl’s bike.

”And you’d rather spend that night playing with the furniture than on a patrol.” Bruce still hasn’t put his cowl back on, is still watching Jason, his expression as close to confusion as Jason’s seen since he got back.

”Ya don’t want me here, all ya gotta do is…” he start’s kicking off from the console to approach Bruce.

”He’s waiting for his huuug.” Dick half sings, from where he’s busy restocking his dumb utility bracelets.

”Your what?” Bruce blinks, and now he really does look confused, his eyes darting uncertainly between Jason and Dick.”

”Shut up Dick.” Jason glares warningly when he sees the grinning idiot opening his idiot mouth to speak. Dick, the bastard just grins wider and Jason can already tell he’s going to have to physically stop him.

”Do you want…” Bruce drops the cowl to hang around his neck and awkwardly spreads his arms, “me to give you a…”

”NO!” Jason yells, backing away from the man so fast he almost trips and Dick almost doubles over in laughter. Now Jason knows the owner of at least one of the voices that had chuckled at him that first time, and as soon as he gets his head straight he’s going to…

”Aw, you waited for me.” Stephanie doesn’t appear from the driveway, but from the stairs that lead up to the manor. Jason’s arms close around her, and he doesn’t care so much about Dick’s laughter, doesn’t notice that it cuts off almost as soon as Jason pulls Stephanie close and she burrows into his jacket.

***

”So, I’ve been thinking.” Stephanie shows up at his current safehouse. He doesn’t know how she found it, but he’s stopped trying so hard to hide them, so he doesn’t wonder too hard, especially not when her hands link up behind his neck and she stands on the tips of her toes to get her eyes as level with his as she can.

”Sure ya should be doing that there Blondie?” Jason croaks out as soon as he can find his breath. She’s not in the batgirl suit, or in post-patrol/workout sweats. What she is wearing isn’t particularly fancy, just jeans and a very fluffy looking orange sweater, but it’s… nice. He doesn’t know if he should tell her that.

”You remember how I said you don’t get enough hugs?” She squints at him and tugs his head down just a little more. Jason shrugs in reply and finally let’s go of his doorframe. She cocks her head to the side. “And I also kinda said I liked you, and you didn’t really say anything back?”

”Yeah, one of like five people in on this Earth.” He has to think a little to remember that particular conversation. “I’m not sure what…” wait. Jason frowns down at her, but the look she directs at him, eyes narrowed and her brows raised, her lips drawn into a straight line.

”Guess I shouldna used playground terminology on someone as dense as you, huh?” The expression melts away and he has barely a couple seconds to see the red flush across her cheeks before she ducks her head and hides it from sight.

Wait. “There’s no way you meant…” Her head snaps up and it’s Jason’s turn to duck his from her view. There’s really just no way, but he can still feel her watching him, and then her hand gently closes around his jaw and turns his eyes to meet hers.

Her expression is still incredibly serious when she says. “I’ve decided you don’t get enough kisses either, but I can’t exactly tell if you’re up for kisses.”She bites down on her lips and releases the hold her hand has on his neck, the warmth there almost immediately being replaced with an unpleasant chill. “Totally okay of you’re not though, you can still…

Before the traitorous parts of his brain make him reconsider, Jason holds her chin much the same way as she did his, he leans in to meet her lips with his. She lets out a surprised squeak, and Jason almost pulls back, but then her hands are linked up behind his head again and she’s pulling him even closer, and, well the traitorous parts of his brain kind of need oxygen to function well enough to betray him. Jason’s more that up for kisses.

***

Stephanie’s a very tactile person. It probably comes from growing up with a mom who was never quite able to give her much attention, and a father who’s attention Steph didn’t usually want, even if he were willing to give it out. Things are better now, sure, with Dad gone and Mom trying to catch up on the whole bonding thing. It’s great, but it’s a little late for it to impact Steph’s personality much right now. To reiterate, the many hugs and head pats and forehead kisses from Mom are great, Steph has no desire whatsoever to lessen their frequency. In fact, she’s determined to dole out as many hugs and head pats and forehead kisses of her own as humanely possible.

Which works out great, depending on whose side you’re looking at it from, because it’s her unprofessional, but still incredibly expert opinion that Jason hasn’t gotten enough hugs, and she’s in the perfect position to deliver them, along with all the head pats and forehead kisses and… various other forms of kisses he also doesn’t get enough of. And Jason, after a brief adjustment period, is more than happy to soak up all the attention like a touch-starved sponge and respond in kind.

See, it works out great… for Jason and Stephanie that is, for the Bats that have to deal with it just about every second the two of them are together? Not so much.