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It’s about time, Jason thinks. Finally it’s his turn for some half-baked happy ending. He doesn’t particularly mind that he came last when it came to being comfortable in his own skin, finding love, being happy. He’s okay that his family and friends got all that first but, it’s been a long time coming.
He blink his eyes open, squinting them nearly closed again when the bright gold light streaming in from the sheer curtains blinds him. Somehow it’s a sunny day in Gotham City.
He rolls from his side to his back, gently moving the arm of his boyfriend that had previously slung around Jason’s waist to the mattress. Sitting up, he pulls his arms over his head, stretching the tight muscles to get ready for the day. He pads quietly across the bedroom to the attached bathroom, shutting the door behind him and turning on the stream of water belonging to the shower, adjusting it to a nice mild warm. He’s only just sudsing up when a second body joins him under the pattering water “morning” one of them mutters, it doesn’t matter who, they’re both thinking it.
Him and Roy stand hip to hip at the counter, silently watching the coffee drip into the pot from the filter above. The red head reaches up into the cabinet, pulling out two mugs. One white with a cheesy motivational message on the front, the other being gray with some kind of branded logo. As the liquid is poured into each mug, steam rises. Then as the creamer is added, it swirls into a lighter shade of brown.
Roy picks up the white mug, sipping from it and walking to the sitting room. They haven’t lived together long, barely a month yet. Though with how often they were at each other's places, they may as well have been. Jason stays a second, still leaning back against the kitchen counters. His mug seems a little too… much. The steam now much more subtly rising is so… potent. He feels nauseous.
Regardless, he takes his mug and follow his other half to the couch.
—-
It's only a little while later Jason catches on. He’d dealt with them in the past, yes, but he hasn’t had one in roughly a year. He thought this stuff was over, that this stupid pit side effect would wear off.
A seizure. He was probably going to have a seizure. Last time he had one he wasn’t on good terms with family, he wasn’t dating Roy, no one knew.
He could sort of tell when they would happen, but he didn’t know if it would happen in a few hours, or a few days. Only once it took two days, that was the worst. Sitting alone in his safe house with the world's worst headache, incredibly nauseous, dizzy.
Well, when the more immediate symptoms started, that’s when he’ll just fake taking a shower.
“We gotta get groceries. You wanna come with me?” Roy asks, setting his empty mug on the coffee table and breaking Jason out of his clouded thoughts.
He thinks it over. If he goes with, he might not be able to just scurry away if needed. If he doesn’t go with he misses out on one of his favorite domestic activities with the love of his life. Well, he supposes it’ll probably still be a minimum four hours till it hits.
—-
“Fucking obviously Honey Nut Cheerios”
“Didn’t know you felt so strongly about cereals Jaybaby”
“I’m not, I’m just a normal human person with a brain” He mumbles, just loud enough to be heard by Roy but low enough that no one else will bat an eye. The box is set in the cart and grocery shopping continues. Lunch meats, cheese, bread, lettuce, peppers, pickles, tomatoes “don’t put those in the cart”
“But I put olives on my pizza” a glass jar of green olives hovers over the cart, ready to be added before Jason’s abrupt hatred.
“Yeah but they’re an insult to modern cuisine. They belong in martinis and that’s it. They’re not to be eaten, they're a garni-” Jason’s taken out of his minor rant by a bark, a dog sitting at his feet and poking him with its nose. “Wha- hey buddy.” Jason is almost about to pet the animal when he notices the all too obvious jacket and patch on the dog, a service dog. The dog barks again, and they’re drawing attention now.
“Sorry! Sorry! She shouldn’t be doing that, she’s so well trained and so well behaved normally. Laika, heel” The dog’s owner apologizes and tries to collect the creature but the dog doesn’t budge, big beady black eyes trained on Jason as it stays sitting by his feet and poking his hand with its wet nose. Fuck. Jason meets the eyes of the dog owner, a look of surprise then concern gracing her features “Sir, do you feel alright?”
“I’m fine! Maybe I smell strange or something, it's really nothing, I feel fine. Golden, good, perfect, peachy” Jason rushes out, a barely coherent ramble as he grabs his boyfriend’s hand and the cart and pushes them away, making sure to leave the jar of olives behind.
—-
He’s not just nauseous now, obviously. He grabs the bottle of Tylenol, dry swallowing a pill to hopefully make the roaring headache subside. He downs two glasses of water and sits down, focusing on his feet to stop the slow sway of his vision, the lightheadedness underlying the painful headache.
“You ready, dimples?” Roy says with a slight smirk, already knowing exactly what Jason is about to say. Mouthing Jason’s next words with him.
“Don’t call me dimples”
“But they’re so cute” Roy walks up behind the couch the younger man is sitting on, leaning over the back and kissing his cheek. “Are you ready though? Honestly I’m kind of nervous, is that weird? It’s just your family, I literally work with them sometimes. But like, first dinner with the boyfriend’s family is a big deal”
“It is a big deal. But they know and like you already. Plus Dick was your closest friend at one point” He puts a hand on the arm of the couch, gripping it harder than necessary as he stands. “It’s just a matter of perspective” he grabs his jacket by the door, pulling his keys off the hangar.
“Hey let me drive” Roy puts out his hand, waiting for Jason to drop the keys into his palm “you’ve been zoning out all day. Plus it’ll keep my mind occupied so I’m not nervous the whole way”
He sets the keys in Roy’s extended hand and follows him out the door. Stupid amazing Roy. Making a favor to Jason sound like it’s really beneficial for both of them.
—-
There’s laughter filling the dining room. The long large wooden table filled with an extravagant supper prepared by Alfred. The laughter dies down a bit and Tim continues his story “-that’s not even the best part! The best part is that afterwards he got to keep the giraffe suit since technically it was state property as evidence for long enough that they stopped caring about getting it back!” followed by more laughter and expressions of shock.
Jason isn’t really listening. Something about a basketball game and a mascot mishap. That doesn’t matter, it’s nothing compared to the intense sense of deja-vu coursing through him. “-aybird? Jay? Jason?”
“Huh wha- huh?” His head shoots up when he recognises that’s him everyone is trying to address. Bad idea, and he grits his teeth as subtly as possible to not vomit from the sudden movement.
“I asked if you wanted more mashed potatoes.” Dick says, brows furrowed, creasing the skin between in a way that’s way too common for someone so good. That’s so unfair. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Hey, yeah. And that person in the supermarket with the dog.” Roy adds, moving his hand to press the backside of it to his forehead. “Not a fever”
“I’m fine. I’m just gonna step out for a minute. I just need some air, maybe” Jason stands up from his seat too quickly to be normal. Walks off too briskly to be normal. But Jason is rarely normal, thus making it switch back around to normal. No one watches a second longer as he moves out of the dining room to the bathroom.
He picks the one on the same floor, but furthest from where everyone is eating. He can’t use the ‘I’m gonna take a shower’ excuse to buy himself enough time. He hopes that he can calm down in the bathroom, take a couple deep breaths, and stave it off another few hours.
This can’t happen. Not when everything has been so good. What if this is just the start of a series of them? He can’t go on patrol if he knows he might have a seizure in the middle of a shootout. What if Roy gets scared off? What if the whole family starts treating him like glass when they did when he first came back?
He was supposed to be calming down, damnit. Not thinking of the worst case scenario.
No no no no. He wipes a tear from his cheek as he braces himself on the bathroom sink. He looks down into the bowl of the sink, he can’t look up. Then he would be looking into the mirror, and then he would see how pale he is, how scared he is.
He tries to repress the feeling of goosebumps growing on his arms, his extremities getting tingly. Okay, he can’t hold it off anymore, this is happening.
He shucks off his jacket, getting down to the ground after quickly grabbing a towel, laying on his side and putting the towel under his head like a pillow. This is definitely not an ideal place, too many things to possibly bump into. He grabs his phone, getting a stopwatch out and setting it beside him. He’s ready, he’s ready to start the timer when he needs to, he’s ready, he’s ready, why is it taking so long now? He just wants to get it over with now.
There’s the garlic smell, the cold breeze. The tingling rises. Okay, here we go.
—-
“Should… should someone go check on him?” Roy taps his finger against the table, looking around at everyone. Jason left not even five minutes ago, but something feels off.
“I’ll go check quickly, keep eating everyone” Alfred rises and sets the napkin that had been set in his lap gently on the table and exits the same direction the former had.
Alfred walks down to the bathroom located right by the stairs, knocking on the door only for the thing to swing open. The bathroom empty. He walks a bit quicker to the next bathroom, also empty. Then the next, the door is closed and light is peeking out the bottom crack between the door and the floor. He raises his hand and gently knocks, calling out “Master Jason?” nothing. “Master Jason, we're all a bit concerned. Is everything going alright?” nothing, except an almost inaudible thump.
His moral code tugs at him to leave Jason alone, let him have his privacy. Some other part of the butler tugs at him to help, something is wrong, someone is hurt, wrong wrong. Expected of someone having cared for so many crime fighting children who tend to hide injuries and their emotions. “Master Jason, I am going to come in, alright?” and when there’s no further response he decides enough is enough, something is wrong and he needs to help.
Alfred twists the doorknob, slowly pulling open the door. He first hears a strangled gurgling sound, then more thumping, maybe some fabric rustling. He pulls the door open the rest of the way.
—-
Dick was having the time of his life. His best friend is dating his little brother and they’re coming over for dinner. They make each other happier, they’re good for each other. Was he a little absolutely outraged towards Roy at first, yes. Is he now their biggest supporter, also yes.
Jason’s been in the bathroom or getting air or whatever for like a gazillion years. He looked uncomfortable earlier, a bit zoned out, not totally there.
“I thought things were better with him?” He turns his head toward Roy.
“They are. Today has been weird” the ginger shrugs, using his fork to push around the half eaten food on his plate.
They all hear the footsteps rushing back over, a focused gait led by the heel, definitely Alfred. Said man stops in the doorway, hair slightly falling out of the carefully managed gelled back style “Jason is having a seizure, come quickly”
Dick has never seen Roy move faster in his entire life. Dick gets up, alongside everyone else after Roy’s initial movements. “No” Dick puts his hands out, stopping Tim, Damian, and everyone else behind them “stay here, we don’t want to crowd him, and shit like this is scary”
“We’ve seen way worse on the field” Tim gawks “let me go to-”
“I said no.” The eldest says firmly “I know you’ve seen worse, but it’s different when it’s family.” Dick follows Alfred, Roy, and Bruce. Running a bit to catch up down the long hallways.
He joins the others in the bathroom, having to mostly stay in the doorway. Bruce is sitting on the closed toilet lid, holding Jason’s phone with the running timer. Alfred is already preparing for the aftermath, getting a damp rag and glass of water. Roy is knelt by Jason’s head, running a hand up and down the twitching jerking arm. Dick is thankful Jason is faced away. He’s pretty sure he’d vomit if he saw his little brother with those telltale twitchy flickering whites of the eyes and foamy saliva.
“Timer just got to six minutes” Bruce announces with shocking calmness. “We’re bringing him to the hospital after this, I don't want to hear any arguments.”
“No one's fightin’ you on that” Roy mumbles, running his fingers through Jason’s black curly locks atop his head.
Finally the movements stop and so does the timer, 6 minutes and forty seven seconds. Alfred works on wiping the floor and Jay’s face of the spitty foam.
When eyes blink themselves back to a mild coherency, Roy leans in a bit more and speaks in a low soft tone “Hey, hey there. You’re okay. You’re in the manor, you just had a seizure. Can you say something?”
Jason coughs, gags, and waves his hand around, motioning for Bruce to move away. Bruce immediately stands and lifts the lid to the toilet, frowning even deeper somehow when he watches his son lean over the side of the toilet and yak into the bowl. Roy grimacing just a bit as he rubs circles into the former crime lord’s back.
“Water, Master Jason?” Alfred holds the glass near and helps him gently sip some water. He swishes it in his mouth, spitting it into the toilet and flushing.
Roy helps Jason sit back against the wall and slowly take small sips of water “We don’t think you hit anything too hard, but Alfred only got here two minutes in. Do you know if you hit your head at all?”
Jason shakes his head “no clue” he says with a defined rasp in his abused throat.
Dick looks over the scene “I’m gonna go warm up the car, take it slow with him” he murmurs to Alfred before turning around and leaving.
“Where s’he goin?” Jason limply gestures in the vague direction his brother once stood.
“We’re bringing you to the hospital, baby. It lasted over six minutes, fuck, five is enough to be an emergency. Let alone that you had a seizure at all would be enough to make us bring you there.” Roy puts an arm over Jason’s slumped shoulders, pulling him a bit closer.
—-
Dick walks past the dining room, out the front to pull his Jeep up to the door. He comes back in and into the room where everyone should be, but no one is at the table. He swivels and moves to the lounge instead, finding everyone there. As soon as his head pokes in, he’s getting questions.
“Is he okay?”
“Where is he?”
“Google said he might have cancer”
“Steph, he doesn’t have cancer”
“Why do you have your car by the front?”
Dick sighs and focuses on one at a time “He’s okay, conscious. He’s in the bathroom still, probably exhausted and confused and scared. We’re gonna take him to get checked out, it’s a seizure. That’s crazy brain stuff, not to be taken lightly”
Bruce walks in and takes motions for Dick to follow, also addressing the crowd that are his children “Alfred will stay here but Roy, Dick, and I are gonna bring Jason to the hospital”
—-
Jason leans against Roy in the backseat, croaking out “M’sorry”
Bruce looks at them in the rear view, gripping the steering wheel tighter. “What on earth could you possibly be apologizing for?” Roy says a bit hysterical, huffing out a puff of air.
“I knew. I knew it was gonna happen and I didn’t say anything anyway. I had so many chances to say something, but I didn’t.” He sniffs a bit “and I’ve put so much effort into being able to… to feel my emotions and be open. Then- fuck”
“It’s okay. You’re okay” Roy plants a kiss into the curls resting on his shoulder.
“No no no, what do you mean you knew?” Dick turns around, looking into the backseat.
“Hey yeah, wait.” Roy looks down at Jason “you knew?”
“The pit. I thought they went away. Last one was about a year ago.”
“We’re talking about that later” Bruce commands, taking a sharp right turn into the hospital parking lot.
“Take it easy, man. My car can’t take your shitty driving like the Batmobile can” Dick gets out first to help Jason climb on out, Roy joining shortly after.
—-
Jason walks alongside his significant other into their shared apartment. They shed their jackets and shoes, leaving them where they land. Keys are tossed onto the counter, and Jason is led into the bedroom.
“You’re comfy? Need anything? Anything at all”
“I’m fine. Seriously. You should be mad, by the way. Just a reminder” He adjusts the pillow behind his back, planting his head in its rightful spot on Roy’s shoulder.
“Jason, dove, why would I be mad?”
“I lied about being fine. I hid a giant handicap of mine behind your back.” He grabs Roy’s hand, toying with his fingers and bending the joints, keeping his mind occupied.
“I don’t appreciate not knowing things like that, sure. But… as much as I hate to admit it, I’m not entitled to knowing every detail of your life”
Jason pauses, looking up at his Harper despite the slightly awkward angle.
“I mean it. Yes, it would’ve been safer if I had known, If anyone had known. But come on” he half laughs half sighs “everyone knows so much about you! You value your privacy, and you so rarely get it between your family being nosy or for your own safety being a vigilante. It’s over, we know now, that’s what matters”
They sit in silence, the older softly kissing his partner in random intervals.
“Sore?”
“All over”
“Scared?”
“Not anymore”
“Okay, dimples” Roy knows exactly what Jason is about to say in response to that nickname. He mouths the words alongside his dearest.
“Don’t call me dimples”