Archive of Our Own ^beta

“I’m home!” Jason stomped his boots on the welcome mat and locked the door behind him. 

No one answered him, which was… strange. Tim should be doing his schoolwork at the table right now and Lian should have been all over him the second he unlocked the door.

He inhaled deeply, but the only scent of the two pups was several hours old at least. Very strange. Maybe Roy took them out somewhere? 

Jason walked through the apartment until he found a letter neatly placed on the table. It smelled like Roy- motor oil and green apples- as he picked it up. He unfolded the piece of paper and started reading.

Jason,

Dick’s got Tim and Lian for the day, so I thought we could spend some time together! That is, if you can find me. 

I’d hate to have to hold this over you if you can’t. Don’t spin around looking for me forever.

-Roy

“Oh, it is ON!” Jason growled, dropping the letter and spinning around. If Roy wanted to play games, Jason would show him that he was more than up for the challenge. 

Nevermind the fact that the last time he and Roy played this game, Roy only lost because he gave up. This time, Jason was going to WIN. 

Jason stepped inside Tim’s room and went straight to his computer. Inputting the password he’d memorized, it took him only a few seconds to navigate to Tim’s tracking system. “Thank youuuuu, Baby Bird. I knew you’d have trackers on everyone.” Jason muttered as he quickly deactivated the ones Tim had placed on himself and took note of the address Roy’s displayed.

One hour later, Jason left the subway and entered the Gotham Public Library. He sniffed the air, but the public space simply held too many scents for him to find Roy among them, even if he was biologically inclined towards his scent. 

Well, that was fine. Jason liked a good challenge, and this was the LIBRARY. Of course he could find his mate in the library; he was practically on his home territory!

Except he couldn’t. Up and down the stairs he went, across every floor. At his wits' end, he opened a vent and stuck his head inside, just in case Roy was somehow hiding there.

“Sir. This is a library, not your house.” A tart voice startled him. Jason yelped as he hit his head on the vent’s insides and scrambled backwards. 

A red-headed woman in a wheelchair arched her eyebrow at him. “What are you doing?”

“Uh- well- I’m lookin’-” Jason winced as he realized just how crazy the truth sounded. He ran a hand down his face and sighed. “There ain’t a good explanation fer this.” He admitted, a little shame-faced.

In all fairness, the vents SEEMED like a probable option to him at the time…

“Hm. You’re Jason, aren’t you?” She asked.

“How’dya-?” Jason sat up and stared.

“Your mate dropped by and said if I saw an Omega rifling around in weird places to give him this.” She grabbed a letter out of a bag hanging off her chair and handed it over.

Jason groaned as he saw Tim’s tracker blinking red with a green ribbon attached, and another letter.

Did you really think I didn’t know about these? Babe. It’s Tim. I know our pup. Get a grip and try harder, eh?

-Roy

“Fuuuuuck!” Jason groaned and glared at the letter in his hand. “You couldn’t have even given me a hint?” He complained as he stuffed the letter into his pocket.

The Alpha laughed and wheeled back to give Jason room to stand up. “You two are adorable. Are you re-enacting your mate hunt?” 

Jason opened his mouth to say no, but then paused. He narrowed his eyes and pulled the letter back out. He pulled out the first letter he found as well and compared the two. “Shit, am I?” He muttered.

“He didn’t tell you?” The Alpha laughed again and shook her head. “Adorable. But you'd better put that vent back, or I’m banning you.”

“I’ll fix it!” Jason jolted and stuffed the letters back into his pocket. Quickly, he fixed the vent cover back into place and left the library before the Alpha changed her mind and banned him anyway.

Still, that left Jason with a bit of a conundrum. Where WAS Roy? Last time, he’d only been a few minutes behind Roy, tracking his scent when it was fresh wasn’t that difficult. Tracking it now when he was hours behind? Even with the advantage he had now…

But Roy wouldn’t make an impossible challenge. Jason knew that Roy wasn’t the kind of Alpha who wanted to see people fail. 

That meant there had to be a way to figure this out. 

Well, the first letter and the second both mentioned Tim. Maybe he should take that as a hint and go talk to his pup…

Who was somewhere out there with Dick. Hmph. So if he was a dick, where would he take someone else’s pups for a day…

Twenty minutes later, Jason was standing outside a crowded arcade, shoulders set with the kind of grim determination of a soldier going to war for the second time. The utter noise and chaos of scents battered at his senses, making Jason want to hiss and retreat. Too many sugar-high pups, too many tired adults carrying a false cheer, it was just plain nasty to smell.

But he was positive he could catch a tinge of Tim’s milk-coffee scent before a waft of air from the air conditioning dissipated it. So, despite how much he wanted to stay out of there, he hitched his shoulders, took a deep breath, and entered. 

It took a hot minute, but eventually he found Dick, Tim, and Lian sitting around a table and eating a pizza, the cheap cardboard type with too much cheese and grease. 

“Papa!” Lian cheered when she saw him, darting over to hug him. “You came! Daddy said you might!”

“Did he now?” Jason cast a quick look at Dick and Tim. Dick was carefully drawn in on himself, face held tightly in control as he gave Jason a nod.

It was Tim who answered him. “He said to give you this if you showed up.” His pup smirked as he pulled out a letter from his jacket and handed it over to Jason.

Jason rested a hand in Lian’s hair, soothing his instincts as he scented her while reading the letter.

Much closer, but not close enough! Maybe you should check your footwork? A pivot might help too. 

Do TRY to find me before closing time, won’t you? 

-Roy

“That smug son-of-a-” Jason cut himself off before he could curse in front of Lian. 

“No luck so far?” Tim snickered.

Jason reached over and ruffled the hair on Tim’s head until his pup was squawking and slapping his hand away. “Watch it, pup. This ain’t as easy as it looks.” Jason grumbled as he slumped into a nearby chair, pulling Lian into his lap.

“Daddy’s doing a really good job, isn’t he?” Lian said proudly. 

Dick laughed, a brief burst of a sound he quickly smothered, although a mischievous gleam remained in his eyes.

“He sure is.” Tim agreed. “I’m starting to think I should have put money on him instead.” He sighed with a ‘woe-is-me’ expression on his face.

“You took bets?!” Jason barked with a disapproving scowl.

“Duh?” Tim lifted a slice and saluted Jason with it, taking a bite out of it while Jason sputtered. 

“Betrayed. All of you are against me.” Jason complained.

“Aw, don’t think about it like that Little-” Dick stopped mid-sentence as Jason shot him a glare. He shut up and looked away.

Good. Just because Jason was allowing visitation didn’t mean Dick could act like they were brothers again.

“How many letters have you gotten so far?” Tim asked, a twinge of anxiety souring his scent as he got between Dick and Jason.

Jason shifted to look away, suddenly feeling- maybe perhaps, just a little bit- guilty. “Three. There ain’t a single hint in any of them either.” He grumbled.

Tim tilted his head to the side. “Are you sure about that? Maybe he tried hiding it in the language of the letter? Now that you have three, maybe you can start finding a pattern in the letters?”

Jason frowned, but it wasn’t a bad thought, so he brought all three out and let his eyes wander over the words. He was sure that Tim would have figured it out quickly, maybe even a whole letter ago, but this part of his detective work had never been his forte. He could brawl with the best of them, and he knew how to analyze a scene and arrive at logical conclusions, knew how to comfort victims and put himself in their headspace, but of all the Rogues, going up against the Riddler had always been the most frustrating kind of battle.

Still, something clicked as he looked over the letters. Spin. Grip. Footwork. Pivot.

The answer came to Jason in a flash, and if he was right, then he only had about an hour to get there before the place closed. Jason stood up and plopped Lian back into his seat. “Make sure they git home at a decent time, got it?” Jason said with a glance at Dick. “‘N’ fer cryin’ out loud, don’t give ‘em too much sugar, huh?” 

“Yes sir.” Dick relaxed with a little salute. 

Jason was half-tempted to snarl at him, but now wasn’t the time for that. Especially not with Tim and Lian there. So he gave Dick a sharp nod, scented both Tim and Lian one last time, before he ran out of the arcade. 

It was a good thing his destination wasn’t too far from here…

When Jason made it to the roller skating rink about ten minutes later, he was half-tempted to just turn around and leave. It was entirely possible he was wrong after all, that those words could have meant something different. They were common movement words after all, maybe he wanted Jason to go to a gym? 

But Jason’s gut said that this was it. This was where Roy would be.

He entered the building and spotted Roy almost immediately, the Alpha casually leaning against the skate rental booth. 

A little bit pissed at being given the runaround like this, Jason stormed over and purposefully bumped into Roy. “You little shit.” He growled.

Roy looked back and grinned. “Nice to see you too.” He laughed. “How was traffic?” 

“Why didn’t ya jus’ tell me ya wanted to go roller skatin’?” Jason complained as he matched Roy’s posture. 

“All in good time Jay! C’mon, I already got our skates.” Roy grinned as he brought out two sets that had been dangling from his hand. 

Jason grumbled, but obediently grabbed his pair. Five minutes later, they were both out on the rink as Jason struggled to move a few feet without threatening to fall over. 

Roy, the asshole, was completely unhelpful, snickering a little at every near fall. 

“Why’re we here?” Jason grumbled after the fifth such occurrence.

Roy straightened up, a more serious light in his eyes. He skated over next to Jason and held his arm out. Reluctantly, Jason accepted, hating a little bit how much steadier he felt at the contact while simultaneously loving it.

“You’ve never been skating before, right?” Roy asked with a softer tone. 

“No.” Jason admitted. “Hasn’t ‘xactly been a priority.”

“I figured. You’ve been all over the world, know how to kill a man fifty different ways, but there was never enough time for something like this, huh?” Roy slid in front of Jason, holding his hand and skating backward.

Jason twitched. “Why’re we here?” He rasped and wished he were wearing a mask. Or scent blockers. Anything to hide the grief-it’s fine-didn’t want this anyway in his scent.

“Jason Todd.” Roy said his name slowly, reverently, almost tasting the name. “I would like to court you.”

Jason’s feet stuttered beneath him. “Wha- what? We’re already mates!”

“I know.” Roy said, and somehow the bastard knew it was time to turn because he led Jason around the corner without even a look back. “But that wasn’t because you actually wanted me. You only did that because you needed a mate, fast. I was your best option. And… well, if you want to keep it like this, a- hm. A marriage of convenience. We can do that. I love you, our pups, and the life we’re creating together, I really do. I’m not running away if you turn me down.”

“Wouldn’t you?” Jason asked softly, internally cursing himself for doing that, for letting himself act sappy and vulnerable. They were in public for Gotham’s sake! 

“No. I won’t.” Roy said, utterly serious.

Jason swallowed, his eyes darting away. He couldn’t bring himself to look at that, to acknowledge it.

It touched his heart all the same. “So. Courting. What’re you figurin’ with that?” He asked.

Roy grinned, all seriousness banished. “I promise, I won't drag you around like this for every date. I just thought it’d be good to go back to our roots a bit.” He laughed. “We started this with a hunt, figured it was only right to start dating with a hunt.”

“You’ve thought about this, haven’t you?” Jason narrowed his eyes at Roy suspiciously.

“What makes you say that?” Roy grinned crookedly. “Side note, how many of my letters did you find?” 

Jason rolled his eyes and shoved Roy, watching the Alpha’s arms pinwheel dramatically as he fought not to land on his ass. By the time he steadied himself, Roy was laughing, his eyes sparkling with mischief. 

Jason was struggling to stand on his own again, but he was grinning too. “I’ll have ya know, I ain’t gonna act like some dainty Omega, takin’ care-a house and home.” 

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Roy said. “I know you’re not going to stop the nightlife, it’s part of you.”

“Mm. ‘N’ I ain’t ‘xactly easy to get along wit’ either. I got a temper-”

“Gee, never would have noticed.”

“You laugh, but you weren’t there for the dufflebag incident.” Jason scowled.

“No, but Tim has recounted it in bloody detail.” Roy said mildly, a hint of a smirk still on his face.

The smile fell from Jason’s face. “I’m a killer.” The words were almost whispered. “I got blood on my hands.”

“Lian’s mom was an assassin.” Roy said. “And she was way less picky about her targets.”

“I-” Jason was about to say something else, but then Roy grabbed his hand and spun him in a circle. “What the f-!” Jason’s curse was cut off as he felt himself lose balance, tilting backwards with a cut-off whine.

“Jason, I’m not running away from you.” Roy said as he smoothly caught Jason, holding him in a dip as if that had been the plan all along. “I know who you are. I know what you mean to me. The only question is what I mean to you.”

A part of Jason wanted to say something snarky and leave. He was blushing as red as a fire engine, and a tiny squeak was building in his throat- as if he was some virgin Omega being flirted with for the first time! 

…Well. Maybe that wasn’t QUITE as inaccurate a thought- but still! He was a badass crime lord! He’d died and been reborn in the world’s worst hot tub! 

And he wanted more than anything to say yes.

...And why shouldn't he?

“...Okay.” He whispered.

Roy grinned. “Okay?” 

“Okay.” He laughed. 

“Yesssssssss!” Roy pulled Jason to his feet and rolled backwards with a fist pump.

Jason laughed when the dumbass fell over two seconds later…and so did Roy when he fell too. 

The Alpha and the Omega sat on the dirty floor of the rollerskating rink together, their scents twining together, until an employee finally kicked them out.