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Erica came skidding into the community center at a run. "Mr. TJ, Mr. TJ!" she shouted.
Dick bolted up from the homework table and hurried to meet her. "Erica, what's wrong?"
"Mr. Ross said you hafta go, now," she gasped. She was flushed and vibrating. "Headquarters!"
"What's wrong?" Dick asked, already turning back towards the table to get his satchel.
Will shoved it at him.
"He said, green-eyes," Erica said, pushing urgently at his legs. "Run!" she ordered.
The Red Hood Gang headquarters was three blocks down from the community center. Dick could get there at a run faster than he could get his bike from parking, get through traffic, and park again.
Dick, obligingly, ran.
He ducked in the door to headquarters just in time to see Jason slam both hands down on the railing of the catwalk and snarl, "Fuck."
Ross, Turk, and the primary strike team were below, warily watching Jason pace. There was a guy on his knees with his hands zip-tied behind his back, under Delia's boot and gun. He was sniveling quietly, ashen and weepy.
Jason snarled again, whirling viciously and kicking the catwalk. His eyes were flashing a poisonous green through the flipped-up lenses of his domino.
Dick had kind of thought code green-eyes was an exaggeration, but this was familiar.
Hank clocked Dick first, and shifted closer. In an undertone, he murmured, "Child trafficking." His mouth twisted with distaste. "Killed the two kids they hadn't sold yet."
Dick hissed between his teeth, sick and furious. He knew that he was here to calm Jay down, but he had to get ahold of himself first.
Delia nodded to him in solidarity, cutting her eyes to him briefly and then looking back at her captive.
Dick breathed through the desire to dismember the trembling asshole who murdered children, and then mounted the steps to the catwalk.
Jason snarled wordlessly, eyes flashing unnaturally. Lazarus Pit, Dick thought grimly. Never without side-effects. "I'm going to kill him," Jason growled, voice nearly unrecognizable. Dick's presence had apparently eneded Jason's battle with himself, and he'd lost.
Dick planted his feet, and shoulder-checked Jason when he tried to shove past him. "No," he said mildly.
Jason took a swing at him.
Dick ducked, deflected the second, and then slapped Jason sharply across the face.
Jason yelped, reeled back, and then actually looked at Dick through familiar, teal eyes. "Fuck," he said quietly.
"Okay, you slapping him was not what I expected when I sent for you," Ross said dryly from below.
Jason stepped forward and bowed his forehead down to Dick's breastbone. Dick stroked his hair gently. "Did I hurt you?" Dick asked quietly.
"No," Jason rasped into his collar.
"So I don't need to kiss it better?" Dick teased.
Jason's head lifted, eyes bright, teal and lovely and warm. "Oh, see," he purred. "It hurt so much I was confused."
Dick feathered tender kisses across Jason's cheekbone. "I want to kill him too," he murmured near Jason's ear, just between them.
Jason bowed back to his shoulder for a moment, and then stood to his full height and flipped his domino lenses down again. "All right," he rumbled, and stepped past Dick to go down the stairs.
Dick followed.
Hood crouched down in front of the still crying man. "Now," he growled. "TJ here just saved your miserable life," he flicked a gesture over his shoulder at Dick, "So you should thank him by giving me everything I ask for."
Shaking and weeping, the guy still shook his head.
Jason bared his teeth in an unhinged grin. "Then we see how many pieces I can carve you into before TJ decides it's too many."
"I bet you can hit double digits," Dick said lightly. "If you cauterize them as you carve them, anyway."
"I got a lighter," Hank offered.
"Fuck that, Boss's got a flamethrower 'round here somewhere," Turk said.
The guy went grey. "No, please," he sobbed.
"Listen here, you piece of shit," Jason growled in his face. "You killed two kids to tie up loose ends, and I know you're the small fish in the pool, because your bosses left you to me."
"That wasn't very nice of them," Delia purred, leaning her weight into the heel of her boot on his leg. "Hang you out to dry like that."
Jason leaned in close. "So you can give them to me, and I can vent my frustrations on them, or you can let them get away, and you spend the rest of your miserable life in traction in Blackgate's medical ward."
"They'll kill me," he whimpered.
"You'll wish I had been that kind," Jason growled back. "Because I'm going to start with your balls."
"Oh," Delia groaned, recoiling as the guy pissed himself in terror.
Jason wheeled away in disgust.
Dick crouched before the miserable man. "Hi," he said easily. "I'm TJ. I'm. Well, I'm Hood's boyfriend, but also like, two-thirds of his impulse control? Also, generally speaking opposed to murder."
The guy blinked at him in shocked confusion. "H-hi?" he stammered.
"So," Dick continued in that easy chatter, more like his rambling as Richie Wayne than Nightwing's chirp. "Like, it's just that, I don't think it's worth your while to keep the information Hood wants from him."
"They'll kill me," the guy said again.
"Not if Hood gets them first," Dick said, very reasonably.
This did not appear to have occurred to the guy before.
Dick shrugged. "So if you give him enough info to get them, you'll be fine." For values of fine, Dick thought, which likely still involved permanent disability and a stay in Blackgate.
After a moment under Dick's easy smile, the guy folded like the laundry. "Okay, okay," he sobbed.
Dick tipped his chin at Hank and Delia.
Delia bared her teeth. "We'll take his details," she purred, and hauled the guy up by his shoulder. Her grip made him squeak.
While she, Hank, and the strike team dragged the guy off to secure him until they could ship him to GCPD and get his statement, Dick waved a casual dismissal at Ross and Turk, and then went to Jason.
"Good timing," Jason murmured into his hair as he tucked Dick into his chest as soon as they were alone.
"Ross called me," Dick replied.
Jason sighed. "Of course he did. Thanks for pulling me back."
"Always," Dick promised.
Jason nuzzled his hair. "I'm still going to carve that motherfucker into pieces," he grumbled, letting Dick rub his shoulders soothingly.
"Two pieces," Dick bargained.
"And then the bosses into four each," Jason said.
Dick had considered that Jason wanted to castrate their friend down there, but he couldn't quite calculate which three bits Jason wanted to carve off the ringleaders. Then he considered that he didn't actually want to know. "Three," he countered.
Jason snorted softly, nuzzling down until he could kiss Dick, slow and thorough.
"Mm," Dick said. "You drive a hard bargain."
Jason huffed, hugging him closer. "I won't kill them," he promised quietly.
"I wasn't worried," Dick replied, nuzzling up under Jason's jaw. "I am sorry I slapped you."
"Oh," Jason sighed, dramatic like a maiden from one of his romances. "It hurt so much. Maybe you should kiss it again."
Dick huffed, and then let himself nuzzled butterfly kisses across Jason's cheek.
Jason huffed at the ticklish sensation, and then turned his face to kiss Dick again. "Okay," he sighed. "I have to go-" he waved vaguely in the direction the strike team had gone.
Dick stole another quick kiss and then released him. "I'll be at the center," he said, and let Jason go.