You know... I always think, 'Kay... this'll be a short one... like less than 1000 words...' then one thing leads to another and we end up with not that

TW: abusive relationship
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Dick sat on a rooftop, his legs swinging back and forth. He was dressed as a civilian, but had his mask pressed firmly over his eyes, conveniently covering their redness.

Jason swung onto the roof and came to sit at his side.

Dick sighed. He knew Jason was bound to find him which was why he wore the mask.

"Sup," Jason said, pulling off his helmet.

Dick nearly laughed at how ridiculous Jason's hair looked, but he never felt much like laughing anymore so he didn't. "Just chillin' on a rooftop," he simply said, adding a false lightness to his voice.

"I would think you'd want to chill with your boyfriend," Jason said, pulling out one of his guns and beginning to polish it.

Dick tensed slightly when Jason mentioned his boyfriend. "Ya... I just wanted some alone time I guess," he said, trying to play it cool.

"You know what," Jason said with a cheeky smile. "I was thinking the same thing earlier. Maybe we should spend our alone time together."

"You know that defeats the purpose of alone time right," Dick said, the tiniest of real smiles tugging at his lips.

Jason waved a hand. "Bah... are you sure you really want to be alone?"

'No,' Dick's mind suppled. What he really wanted was for someone to save him... for someone to make all the pain go away.

"Cuz I think being alone together sounds nicer," Jason continued.

Dick laughed, the sound of it foreign to his ears. He hadn't laughed for a while. "Thanks for the offer Jay, but I think Seth will be worried if I don't get home soon," he said, sending Jason a sad smile.

"Too bad for you. I consider myself excellent company," Jason called as Dick swung away on his grappling hook. He listened for the familiar cackle that would usually have followed a comment like that, but there was none.

Jason's brows furrowed. He was concerned for Dick. Ever since he'd started dating this Seth he'd been acting different... a bad different.

His concern had nothing to do with the fact that he was extremely jealous... or maybe it did, but that still didn't stop him from being worried.

—

"Oh Richard, you're so naive," Seth said, shoving Dick to the ground where he began kicking him. "Didn't think I'd notice you leave huh?" He said, punctuating his sentence with sharp kicks to Dick's side and back.

"I... I was just going out for some fresh air," Dick wheezed, gritting his teeth. He could totally fight back if he'd wanted to, but he couldn't bring himself to hurt his current boyfriend.

Besides, he'd definitely taken worse beatings.

"You were supposed to make dinner you lazy little—

Dick's phone ringing interrupted whatever Seth had been saying and the older man grit his teeth, gesturing for Dick to hand over the phone.

"Hello?" Seth answered, his furious and volatile tone from before completely gone. "Oh yes, he's just in the shower," he said with a light chuckle. "I will. Goodbye."

Seth's demeanor instantly changed back once the call was over. He glared at Dick, throwing the phone across the room and watching as it shattered against the wall.

Dick whimpered quietly, scooting away from his angry boyfriend.

"Get in that kitchen and make me some food. You don't deserve any tonight so you'll go to bed hungry," Seth said, turning on his heel and stomping over to the couch.

Dick scurried into the kitchen and warmed up some food as quickly as he could, trying to hold back his frightened tears.

—

Seth was sitting on the apartment's couch sipping on a bottle of something most likely alcoholic when Dick came with his food.

"Took you long enough," Seth growled when Dick handed him the plate. "Where's my coffee?" He demanded after examining the food.

"I... I didn't know you wanted—

"It should be clear!" Seth yelled. "I'm eating dinner aren't I? So go get me some coffee!"

Dick nearly ran out of the room, returning minutes later, a cup of hot coffee burning his hands as he returned to the room.

Seth reached out a hand for the cup, and Dick tried to warn him that it was hot, but the other man wouldn't listen. He grabbed onto the cup, but fumbled it when he felt just how hot it actually was. Some of the hot liquid spilled onto his crotch and he shouted, jumping up and spilling the rest of the hot coffee down the front of Dick's shirt.

Dick stumbled away, crying out as the coffee burned his chest.

Seth swore. "You little circus freak!" He shouted, grabbing his empty beer bottle and swinging it at Dick's head.

Dick cried out as the glass shattered on his face, a piece cutting through his lip and others imbedding themselves in his cheek.

As soon as Seth saw the blood he was like a different person again, immediately kneeling down at Dick's side and fussing over him.

Dick shrunk away from Seth's touch.

Seth glared. "Well fine," he growled. "Ungrateful brat. You can help yourself," he said, turning and walking away.

—

"I'm going to Gotham to visit family," Dick said early the next morning, figuring he'd better tell Seth where he was going if he didn't want to get a reaction similar to the one he got the day before.

"And what are you going to tell them if they ask about your face?" Seth said, not even turning around.

"I... got mugged," Dick said quietly.

"Good," Seth replied. "Now get out of here."

—

Alfred was immediately concerned when he opened the manor door to see Dick standing there with a bruised and swollen face.

Dick gave him a watery smile as he stepped inside.

"My dear boy... what on Earth happened?" Alfred asked, stepping closer to examine Dick's face.

"Just patrol..." Dick said with a shrug.

Alfred huffed and grabbed Dick's shoulder, directing him to the kitchen where he began a more thorough examination of the injury.

Dick hissed in pain when Alfred removed a small shard of glass that he'd missed.

"There's still some glass stuck in here sir..." Alfred said. "I'm going to get you some pain meds and ice for that lip of yours before I continue."

Dick sighed, finally feeling safe enough to let his guard down, allowing a few tears to slip down his cheeks.

"Alfred wanted me to bring you..." Jason started, trailing off when he saw Dick's face and the tears that were pooling in his eyes. "Dickie? You alright?" He asked, slowly walking forward.

Dick looked up at Jason in surprise. "I... I'm fine..." he mumbled. "Just... rough patrol last night."

Jason hummed and sat down next to Dick. "Must've been some fight," he said, not missing how Dick flinched when he patted him on the leg.

"Uh... y-you should've seen the other guy," Dick replied hastily.

"Seth must've been concerned... what excuse did you give him?" Jason asked, paying close attention to how the acrobat reacted when he said Seth... something definitely wasn't right here... and Jason had a feeling that that slimy backed cockroach was behind it.

"I... I just told him I got jumped... he was being so sweet about it... offering to help me stitch up my cuts and bringing me cold compresses," Dick said, trying to somehow replace the bad memories with good ones.

"What's that?" Jason asked, pointing to a splotch of red blistery skin that was peeking up from the collar of Dick's shirt.

"Oh... I spilled coffee on myself," Dick said.

Jason narrowed his eyes. Dick hated both the smell and taste of coffee... "Shouldn't you have Alf take a look at that too? Looks pretty bad..." Jason said.

"NO! I... I mean no, I already took care of it this morning... you know... debrideing and putting some antibacterial ointment on there," Dick said, slight panic slipping into his voice.

"Ok..." Jason said, his suspicions growing. "You know Dick... if there's anything wrong you can tell me. I'd gladly help you with anything."

Dick opened his mouth slightly as if to say something, but quickly closed it, pasting a fake smile on his face. "I'm perfectly fine Jay, but I'll keep that in mind."

Jason sighed and handed Dick an ice pack and a few painkillers. "Any time you need help... just call me," he said as he left the room.

Dick frowned, remembering his destroyed phone. Calling was most definitely not going to happen.

—

Dick slowly opened the door to the apartment he shared with Seth. The rank smell of alcohol assaulted his nose immediately and he considered just turning back around and leaving.

"That you Dick?" Seth's voice said from the dark.

Dick let out a breath. "Ya it's me," he replied.

Something came flying out of the dark, smashing into hundreds of pieces on the wall next to Dick's head. It was a glass beer bottle just like the one he'd been hit with yesterday.

Dick panicked, his breath coming quicker and his thoughts becoming erratic. He quickly turned to protect his face and was met with a bottle to the back.

"You like that circus boy?" Seth growled, hurling another bottle.

"S-Seth... please... you've had too much to drink... please just... just go lay down," Dick pleaded. He didn't realize just how close Seth had gotten to him until he felt a bottle slam into the back of his head then nothing...

—

Dick awoke on the floor of his apartment laying next to the door. There was glass surrounding him, and he could feel pieces sticking into his skin.

Each movement sent waves of pain rippling through his body and black darkened the corners of his vision.

Dick eventually made it to his feet, leaning heavily against the wall as made his way to the place he'd hidden the bag containing everything he held dear. "Goodbye Seth," he whispered as he climbed out the window and slowly made his way to the roof.

—

Dick didn't know how long he'd been looking for Jason. It could've been two minutes or twenty. Regardless, he continued to stumble around, sloppily swinging or jumping from roof to roof.

"Dickie?" Jason asked when he eventually spotted the acrobat during his patrol.

Dick turned to Jason, tears in his eyes as he stumbled forward, falling into his arms. "Jay," he mumbled, finally realizing just how tired he was.

"What's wrong Bluebird?" Jason asked, running his hand through Dick's hair.

Dick hummed, leaning into the gentle touch.

Jason's brows furrowed when he felt something sticky and wet on the back of Dick's head. "Dick?" He said once again.

"Need help," Dick mumbled, going limp in Jason's arms.

Jason immediately panicked, scooping up the shorter man and running as fast as he could towards his own apartment.

—

When Dick came to he was lying on his stomach on a comfortable bed. He had what definitely felt like bandages wrapped around his torso, and there was someone who was most definitely not Seth holding his hand.

"Jason?" Dick asked, his voice barely more than a whisper.

"Are all of these from him?" Jason asked, staring at the numerous scars that littered Dick's back and thinking of all the ones that were covered by the bandages... Dick was a vigilante, so obviously some scars were expected, but this... this was more than even Bruce had.

"All what?" Dick asked, trying to play dumb.

"Dickie," Jason breathed. "These scars... they're from Seth aren't they?"

Dick was silent for a moment as he remembered all of Seth's outbursts, and the nights he'd have to try and stitch himself up before patrol. Tears gathered in his eyes. "Y-yes," he whispered.

Jason's heart broke for Dick, the man he'd secretly been pining after for years. How could someone hurt such an amazing and kind man?

Dick sobbed quietly.

"That son of a sea slug... He deserves a good beating... actually... I haven't broken Bruce's no killing rule for a while..." Jason growled, just about ready to grab his guns and head out.

"Please d-don't," Dick sniffled, trying to push himself up into a sitting position.

Jason was immediately at Dick's side when he saw him struggling, lifting him with gentle hands.

Dick slumped when he was finally sitting up. "He... he hurt me..." he sobbed after a minute.

Jason wrapped Dick in a hug. "It's alright Dickie... I'm here," he said.

Dick grabbed fistfuls of Jason's shirt and cried into his shoulder as the younger gently rubbed a hand up and down his back.

"I love you Dickie," Jason whispered softly when he realized that the elder had fallen asleep. He gently lowered the acrobat onto the bed before heading to where he kept his Red Hood gear...

That piece of shriveled up cow feces was going to pay for what he'd done.