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Tim laid in their bed, scrolling on their phone. They really should've been doing some more session prep before the others arrived, but they were still tired, so they’d decided to wing it. They knew the basics of what the party would be doing this session anyway, and anything else could easily be argued as over preparation, depending on the DM. Tim didn’t really believe that over preparation was something one could do for anything, but being tossed around in the Harbor by King Shark could make even the strongest abandon their principles.
They smiled at a stupid video on their feed before a notification that someone had rung the doorbell for their apartment interrupted it. Tim sat up, confused as they tapped it to see who it was. The meet up time wasn’t for another twenty minutes, so it shouldn’t have been any of the Bats. Their breath caught in their throat when the live footage from the door popped up on screen, revealing Jason standing in their hall with his hands in his pockets.
Slowly, Tim took another breath. They hadn’t talked about Jason’s flirting after the last session, even though they should have. They were dreading the conversation a little bit, not sure what Jason’s aims were and if asking would make it awkward. They hadn’t played for much longer after the fight anyway, just long enough for the party to investigate the cave, looking for treasure. Tim had ended the session a little earlier than they’d planned, claiming it was a good stopping point, but it was really because Jason’s Gilbert’s flirting was making them flustered.
They were able to hide that of course, play off of his flirting as Avery being flustered and then hiding it when they went back to being Tim. The flirting wasn’t even that bad - it wasn’t incessant or overbearing, it was…nice. Sweet. Tim wasn’t used to seeing that side of Jason. It wasn’t that they’d never seen his softer side before, but it was still weird.
Swallowing back their wariness, Tim pressed the call button, “You’re early.”
Jason’s head snapped up, eyes darting around before quickly spotting Tim’s camera. He grinned, that same easy, sweet smile Gilbert had flashed at Avery.
“Hey, Timmers,” he said, lifting his right hand which was carrying a restaurant to-go bag that Tim hadn’t even noticed, too focused on Jason. “Brought snacks.”
Tim pushed themself out of bed before hitting the button to let Jason in. They padded into the living room, bracing themself for whatever reason Jason had arrived early. Tim refused to let their defensiveness show on their face, forcing their muscles to relax out of the tension.
“You like Jokerized fries, right?” Jason asked, grinning at them over his shoulder as he shut Tim’s door. Jason’s sweet grin was somehow worse when there wasn’t a camera in between and worse than it had been with the excuse of roleplay.
“Yeah,” Tim said, leaning against the wall as Jason walked over and sat the bag on their coffee table.
“I got fries, cheese bites, and popcorn chicken,” Jason said, falling onto Tim’s couch. “I was gonna get Cinnabon, but I’m assuming Dickie will have the sweet shit covered.”
“Probably,” Tim agreed, their body glued to the wall somehow despite them internally yelling at themself to move and go sit beside Jason on the couch.
Jason’s grin faltered, “I…I liked playing last time. It - you, um, did a great job.”
Tim felt pride surge in their chest, affection rising along with it watching Jason’s mannerisms. He was kind of adorable.
“Thanks,” Tim said, finally pushing off the wall. “You made good decisions during the fight, especially with the lighter.”
Jason’s grin came back, brighter than ever, “Thanks! Glad it was there; I didn’t even think to give my character one.”
Tim sat down beside him on the couch, shrugging, “It’s the mundane things that usually get forgotten.”
“Guess that makes sense,” Jason said. “Do cigarettes exist?”
Tim raised an eyebrow as they leaned back against the couch, “Yeah. Is Gilbert a smoker now?”
Jason laughed, twisting sideways to face Tim. He propped his elbow against the back of the couch before raking his hand halfway through his hair, “I guess so. I don’t know a lot about his back story to be honest. Dami was telling me about how long he and Dick talked about theirs, and now-” he swallowed, casting his eyes down for a second. “What, um, else do you need from me? About Gil.”
Oh. Tim blinked. Was that why Jason had come over early? Just because he felt guilty for not giving Tim a backstory on Gilbert?
“I mean, you don’t have to give a big backstory if you don’t want to,” Tim said slowly. “Dick and Damian talked a lot because their characters are connected. Really, the things you have to provide are completely up to you. Some people like having tragic backstories and others just wanna play the game with the way the character is now.” Tim shrugged. “I’ve played both ways and both are fun.”
“I should probably have something,” Jason mused.
“Well, why’d Gilbert become an adventurer in the first place?” Tim asked, twisting a little bit to face him too. They could see Jason’s hesitation, clearly not sure where he should start with backstory.
“To help people,” Jason said automatically.
“Okay, why?” Tim prompted.
Jason sighed, taking his hand out of his hair before running it through again, the heel of his palm pressed against his temple. Tim didn’t know why they were watching that so intently. “Probably because he didn’t have someone like that when he was younger. Wants to be that for someone else,” he looked up at Tim, pain briefly flickering in his eyes.
“You don’t have to draw from your own experiences if you don’t want to,” Tim said softly, surprising themself a little with how gentle it sounded. “It can be whatever you want.”
“I do want it,” Jason said slowly. “I think…I don’t know if I wanted him to have died, but…” he leaned closer, and Tim felt themself leaning closer too. “Maybe he gets to be happier than me.”
Tim’s lips parted, not sure what to say. The tension was thick between them as Jason waited for them to respond. Tim pulled their bottom lip in to wet it, buying time.
Someone banged at their door, saving them. Tim sprang up from the couch, pulling their phone out of their pocket so they could check the door. They could see Jason staring up at them expectantly from the corner of their eye. Steph and Cass were standing outside, Cass rolling one of her dice between her fingers.
Tim hit the button to unlock the door, moving towards it as Steph opened it and walked in.
“Are we the first ones-?” Steph stopped herself, likely seeing Jason over Tim’s shoulder. “Oh. How early were you?”
Jason scoffed behind them as they hugged Cass, “Not early enough to make fun of.”
Steph scoffed right back, “I have doubts.”
“Did you two bring snacks?” Tim asked, a little patronizing in their tone on purpose. “No?”
“Shut up,” Steph said, shoving them playfully as she laughed. “I’ll bring them when it’s my turn.”
Tim rolled their eyes but followed Steph and Cass back into the living room. Jason was sitting on the edge of the couch now, his jaw clenching slightly. Tim pretended not to notice as they sat down in one of their chairs instead. It wasn’t like it was a slight against Jason anyway; they had planned on sitting in their chair again from the beginning, needing to have a solo seat so none of the players could see what they were doing behind the screen.
They let Steph lead the conversation as they all waited for the others to arrive, Tim using session prep as an excuse to stay quiet. They should’ve talked to Jason about the flirting when they’d had a chance. They couldn’t now, but until they found out what Jason’s goals were in flirting, they needed to put a stop to it. If he just wanted someone to flirt with, Tim could provide that. They just didn’t really want it to be Avery.
They’d played as Avery in every campaign they’d ever been in. Different versions of them of course, including campaigns before they’d realized they were nonbinary, campaigns where they’d died, campaigns they’d run and ones they’d just played in. Avery was a constant. Tim wasn’t sure how it’d happened. They didn’t really want them reduced to a player's love interest if they could help it.
Tim glanced at their campaign notes, remembering that they’d already crafted a character that was meant to befriend and then betray the party quickly so that they would start going after the big bad. Tim paused, chewing on the end of their pen as the gears in their brain whirred. They could easily sub out the character for Avery, which would solve the problem of Jason flirting with Avery specifically, and then the character they’d made for that role could just be Gilbert’s love interest instead, solving both problems.
Obviously, they would have to make a few extra tweaks to the plan, especially if they wanted to stop the flirting before this session’s end, but they could make it work. Instead of harming everyone a little bit, Avery could just harm Gilbert a lot. Not enough to kill him, or do permanent damage, but they could easily come up with some enchanted item to put a curse on him. Tim smiled, probably a little evilly, as they started typing quickly.
The others arrived shortly after Cass and Steph had, Dick pulling through with the sweet snacks like Jason had predicted. Tim exchanged an amused look with Jason over Dick’s back as he bent over to lay the sweets on the coffee table before Tim looked back at their notes.
“Did everyone make their character icon?” Tim asked once everyone had arrived, referring to the pic crew they’d sent out in their wizards and warriors group chat after the last session. “Because this is Avery after you find them.”
A few of them leaned forward to see better as Tim turned their phone around, Jason being one of them. His brows furrowed in concern. Tim looked away, realizing they were paying too much attention to Jason again.
“I wanna go next,” Steph said excitedly, unlocking her phone.
One by one, they went around the table, showing off their characters. Steph was seemingly torn between gushing and complaining about the options for the pic crew, while Damian almost admitted to wanting to design a pic crew himself. Dick’s and Damian’s looked so similar, it was clear they’d worked together to make them really look like father and son. So many of them had added scars or tattoos for the vibes that they all promised to text them backstory for later. Tim just shrugged, genuinely fine with them not having a reason or purpose other than liking the way it made their characters look.
“I couldn’t decide if I wanted to add my white streak or not, but this is Gilbert,” Jason said, showing his phone to everyone. He handed it to Tim first, their fingers brushing as they took the phone.
Gilbert looked so much similar to Jason than Tim had realized. All of them had made characters really similar to themselves, actually. Jason reached over, swiping his finger across the screen, moving to a second pic crew that didn’t have Jason’s white streak.
“You have your heart curls,” Tim said quietly before tensing. They weren’t sure why they’d made that observation out loud. It had been harder to see with the white streak over top of them, and Tim was struck with the urge to look at Jason in real life to see if he still had them underneath the white streak and Tim’s had just been skipping over them.
“Yeah,” Jason agreed softly. “Like I said, me but…” he trailed off, and Tim looked up to see him bite his lip before leaning away.
“I wanna see,” Dick said, reaching for the phone and cutting through the tension.
Grateful, Tim handed it over.
~⚘~
“Alright, session recap,” Tim said, grabbing the table’s attention. “You took on a missing person’s request for Avery Sincullis, your search leading you to a series of caves a few miles from the town. Inside, you battled with three cave spiders, and Gilbert,” Tim glanced at Jason, “rushed deeper into the cave, finding Avery suspended in webs. He cut them down, and you all made camp in the woods to spend the night.”
“It’s night?!” Steph demanded in distress, and Tim rolled their eyes because they knew she was just quoting Zootopia. They’d established the time of day before wrapping up the session last time, so there’s no way she was actually surprised by this information.
“Actually,” Jason cut in, looking through his spell list. “Can we go back a little bit? If I’d known Avery looked like that, I would’ve healed them.”
“You can just heal them now,” Tim said with a shrug. “It probably was too dark for Gilbert to see before, but now that you have the light of the campfire, it would be easier to spot.”
Jason nodded, eyes glued to his character sheet.
Gilbert walked over to Avery, who was sitting alone by the campfire, their legs drawn up to their chest. They were staring into the flames unblinking, and Gilbert grimaced as he finally noticed the wounds on their face.
“Hey,” Gilbert said softly, crouching down beside them.
Avery flinched, hand moving like they were reaching for a weapon that wasn’t there, before their eyes landed on Jason. “Oh. Hey,” they said, swallowing. “Sorry, I-”
“You don’t have to apologize,” Gilbert interrupted softly. “I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.”
“It’s fine,” Avery said, waving away his concern. “I’m just…still jumpy, I guess.”
Gilbert hummed, “Makes sense. How’d they get you anyway?”
Avery shrugged, curling their legs back up, “Was walking home and took a shortcut through the woods.”
Gilbert huffed a laugh, “Hell of shortcut.”
Avery cast him an amused look, “You could say that.”
Gilbert hummed again before gesturing towards their cheek, “Mind if I take a look at that? I’ve got healing magic.”
Avery hesitated before nodding, moving closer to Gilbert so he could see better.
“Where were you coming from?” Gilbert asked curiously.
“Roll persuasion, because that’s not something Avery wants to disclose,” Tim said. “You’d be rolling with disadvantage if you hadn’t just offered to heal them.”
Jason raised an eyebrow as Harper oooh’d and Barbara wrote something down in her notebook.
“Seventeen,” Jason said smugly.
Avery swallowed, “I…had a work opportunity in the next town over. I’ll have to go back and explain why I missed it.”
“Oh,” Gilbert said, reaching out and gently cupping their face, fingers splaying out across their cheek. “Your parents didn’t mention that when they ordered the quest.”
“And then I cast Lay on Hands for fifteen hit points,” Jason said.
Tim repressed a sigh. They needed to get Avery out of this situation so they could replace them with another npc for Jason to flirt with. Avery was just too much of Tim for them to feel comfortable with Jason flirting since Jason didn’t realize how personal it felt for Tim. If he knew, he probably wouldn’t have started flirting with Avery in the first place.
Steph snorted, “Damn, you’re kinda laying it on thick.”
“What do you mean?” Jason asked, looking across the table at her.
She gestured towards him, “The whole hand on cheek thing.”
Tim wondered if Steph had picked up on their…aversion wasn’t the right word for it, and revulsion was definitely wrong. They weren’t uncomfortable, it was just…weird.
“I have to touch the wound to heal it,” Jason said, gesturing to his character sheet. “What do you want me to do, let them bleed out?”
Oh. Tim huffed a small laugh, “You don’t have to touch the wound directly.”
Jason looked back at them, face pinched in confusion, “It says I have to touch them.”
“Yeah, them, but not the wound,” Tim explained, leaning towards him and tapping the spell description. “It’s mostly for battle purposes so you can heal someone even if you can’t reach the injury but you can get to them, like if they’re trapped but you can brush their fingers or something. You also don’t have to use your whole pool with Lay on Hands each time you use it if you don’t want to.”
Jason looked at them for a second before turning away, grumbling as his ears turned red, “There’s too many goddamn rules in this game.”
Tim chuckled, leaning back in their chair, “It doesn’t really matter since you’re about to have a long rest and get them back anyway, but I just wanted to let you know.”
“Thanks,” Jason mumbled.
“My parents sent you?” Avery asked.
Gilbert nodded, dropping his hand, “Yeah. Said they hadn’t heard from you in a couple of days.”
Avery snorted derisively, “How kind of them to notice.”
“Were you…gone longer than that?” Gilbert asked hesitantly.
Avery blew out a slow breath through their nose before nodding. “It’s not your problem though,” they said, seeing the expression on his face.
“I mean, it could be,” Gilbert said softly. “If you needed some help.”
“Need some help with what?” Follen asked, dropping more wood on the fire before plopping down beside Avery.
“Nothing,” Avery said quickly, casting a sidelong look at Gilbert.
“Hey, come on,” Follen said with a grin. “We just saved you; you can trust us to help out.”
“Wow, that sounds really convincing,” Avery said sarcastically. They sighed softly, “Thank you, but I’m fine.”
Gilbert and Follen exchanged a glance.
“Can I send Gilbert a silent message?” Dick asked.
“Do you have Message as a spell?”
Dick looked through his spell sheet, “No.”
“Then no.”
“Don’t we both speak Elvish or something?” Jason asked, leaning over and flipping one of the pages of Dick’s character sheet back.
“But then they’ll know we’re talking about them,” Dick said, sucking on his teeth. “Maybe Follen should leave; you were getting somewhere on your own.”
“We could go hunt something,” Jason suggested. “So we have food, and then we can talk strats to get them to open up.”
“Ash is a vegetarian,” Damian said firmly. “So we won’t be doing that.”
Jason rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath.
“Well, Apple’s a carnivore, so we unfortunately will be doing that,” Steph said, pressing her lips together.
“Tch, she is not,” Damian sneered.
“She is!” Steph exclaimed, holding up her character sheet and tapping one of the boxes. “She’s a carnivorous fairy!”
“You all also have your own rations you can draw from,” Tim interrupted before the fight started to derail the session. “So you all eat before going to bed and now you all have a long rest, and we can start the next morning.”
“Okay, we should start heading back to town,” Thessawena said, adjusting the straps on her pack. “I’m sure Avery’s anxious to get home.”
Avery grimaced before nodding, only Delaney and Follen noticing. As they moved through the woods, Gilbert hung back to walk beside Avery.
“So, what was the job?” Gilbert asked.
Avery regarded him for a moment before shrugging, “Not sure. Didn’t ever make contact because I got captured by the spiders before I got there.”
“Huh,” Gilbert said, thinking. “Must’ve been out pretty late.”
Avery shrugged, “Takes a while to move between the towns on foot. Got a late start.” They gave him a wiry smile, “Trust me, I won’t be doing that again, especially with you around to protect me.”
Jason’s lips parted. Tim raised an eyebrow challengingly. Jason’s surprised expression slowly morphed into a grin.
“I s’pose I could do that,” Gilbert said with a wink. “Just let me know when you wanna go back.”
“What if we went now?” Avery asked.
Gilbert glanced at Follen’s back in front of him before looking back at Avery, “You don’t want to rest first? Go home and recover?”
Avery shook their head, “Don’t need to. Your healing magic was…amazing. I’ve never felt this good before.”
Gilbert swallowed, “I mean, I guess we could all-”
Avery shook their head, “Just us. I…I don’t trust them. I know they’re your friends, but I’ve barely spoken to them. If I say something about not going back, they might stop me to get whatever reward money my parents offered you.”
“They wouldn’t - if you don’t want to go home, we won’t make you,” Gilbert promised.
“I know you won’t,” Avery said, grabbing his arm and stopping him.
“I do not like this,” Barbara said with a disbelieving laugh. “How do we stop this?”
“Roll perception,” Tim said, leaning back in their chair as they let go of Jason’s arm.
“If they wanna go, we should-”
“It feels like they’re manipulating you to get you alone,” Duke interrupted. “I don’t trust it either.”
“Thank you!” Babs said, rolling her d20.
“Yeah, they’re trying to get him alone so they can kiss, duh,” Steph said, rolling her eyes.
Dick made a face that Tim pointed ignored as Babs silently added her modifiers.
“Sixteen,” Barbara said.
Tim sucked on their teeth, “You’re too far up the line to hear them.”
“Fuck,” Babs muttered before looking over at Dick. “Can you try?”
“I guess,” Dick said as his die clacked around the wooden dice tray. He sighed, flatting his lips together. “I rolled a three.”
“You’re right in front of them!” Babs exclaimed. “Does that not add something?”
“Not enough for it to matter with that roll,” Tim said. They’d had Avery cast Silence, so none of them would be able to hear the conversation anyway. The only way they’d let the party notice was a nat 20 or a 25 to realize how quiet it was.
“I wanna try,” Cass said.
Tim nodded at her, but her numbers weren’t high enough either.
“Do you think it’s bad?” Steph asked, confused.
Cass shrugged, “Could be. They might have even been bait and we just beat the trap.”
“They’re not bait,” Jason said, crossing his arms. “It sounds to me like their parents are shitty, so they don’t wanna go back.” He looked at Tim. “Right?”
Tim shrugged, “Roll insight.”
“Fifteen?” Jason said uncertainly.
Tim hid a smirk before saying, “You believe they’re genuine.”
“I can’t go back there,” Avery said, stepping closer to Gilbert. “So I’m going to Wystia, with or without you, Gil.”
Gilbert swallowed, looking at his party as they continued along the winding path.
“If it’s winding, can I see them?” Barbara asked, picking up a d20.
“No,” Tim said firmly, keeping their eyes on Jason.
“I know we just met, so I don’t want to pressure you,” Avery said softly. “I can go on my own. Thank you, Gil. For everything.” They raised up on their toes and pressed a quick kiss to Gilbert’s cheek.
“What the fuck?” Dick muttered.
Tim ignored him.
Jason grabbed their wrist as they started to leave, pulling them back around, “Wait.”
“I don’t want to hold you up,” Avery said. “If you’d rather stay with your party, I can just give you this.” They touched a small necklace that rested against their tunic. “It’s enchanted, so you’ll be able to hear me any time I call for help.”
“See?” Steph interjected. “Not evil.”
“I agree,” Harper said, rolling two of her dice around her palm.
Cass hummed skeptically.
“You can roll investigation or cast any spell you might have to identify the necklace,” Tim offered to Jason.
Jason breathed deeply through his nose before rolling his d20. “Goddamn it,” he muttered. “Three.”
“Your rolls are shit today, dude,” Duke noted.
“Thanks,” Jason snapped before looking back at Tim expectantly.
“You can’t really tell anything,” Tim said with a shrug. “Looks like a regular necklace.”
“I’ll go with you,” Gilbert said.
Avery’s mouth dropped open, “I - really?”
Gilbert nodded, “The necklace will still be helpful, but yes.”
“Okay,” Avery reached behind their neck to start undoing the necklace. Their face pinched oddly. “Actually, could you do it? I’m having trouble with the clasp.”
“Sure-” Jason started to say, but Tim stopped him with a raised hand.
“Roll insight or perception.”
“EVIL!” Babs screeched, pointing as she stood. “Evil, evil, evil! Don’t put on that necklace, Jay!”
Jason made a frustrated noise, and Tim leaned over to see he had rolled another three. Tim smirked up at him.
“Avery’s eyes are a really pretty blue.”
Gilbert undid the clasp of Avery’s necklace, removing it slowly. Avery swayed, their lashes fluttering. Wind suddenly whipped around them, but Gilbert seemed unaware of it.
Finally, the party turned, noticing their companion several feet away from them. They started running back to him, screaming his name. Gilbert couldn’t hear them.
Gilbert raised the necklace slowly, like he was in a trance. He clasped it around his neck and gasped as the weight of it settled against him. Instantly, he could tell it was magic, binding his soul to the necklace.
Avery breathed deeply, like it was the first time they’d been able to in years. Their eyes opened as they looked at Gilbert, a small fraction of pity shining in their eyes.
“You trust too easily,” Avery said solemnly. “You’ll find someone to swap with…eventually.”
“What have you done?” Gilbert asked, clutching his chest in agony.
Avery winked, “Saved myself, darling.”
As the first member of the party to finally reach them, Delaney swung her sword, aiming for Avery’s head. Avery chuckled as they dodged out of the way before snapping their fingers and disappearing.
“Wait, what the fuck?” Jason asked as Tim handed him the info for the necklace.
“You’ve been cursed,” Tim said plainly before looking back at the others. “Maybe don’t flirt with the first NPC you meet next time.”
Jason looked up at them, betrayal and confusion flashing across his face before he looked back down at the character sheet, his bangs falling in front of his eyes. Tim looked away, swallowing back some guilt.
~⚘~
“And I think that’s a good stopping point for tonight,” Tim said. “Thank you all for playing.”
They all chorused about how much fun they’d had, which was nice but expected, so Tim didn’t take it too seriously. They slowly started leaving, until it was just Jason remaining.
“Well, this was fun,” Tim said, not so subtly trying to kick Jason out so they could go back to laying in bed. Things hadn’t gotten awkward, exactly, after what had happened, but Jason had gotten quieter. The party had gone back to the town to see if anyone at the magic shop could help before realizing that Gilbert would have to find someone willing to take it off and wear it instead.
“It was,” Jason said, his jaw flexing. “You want some help cleaning up?”
Tim glanced around at the food-covered plates and half empty cups scattered about their coffee table. They were also pretty sure they were seeing the corner of Harper’s character sheet sticking out from under one of them. Tim sighed, “Yeah, actually. Thanks.”
Tim grabbed a couple of small trashbags and handed one to Jason.
“I really wasn’t expecting that from Avery,” Jason said quietly.
Tim nodded, focusing on cleaning, “That was the point.”
“Oh,” Jason said, opening his bag. “Why’d they do that?”
Tim shrugged, picking up an empty red solo cup that they weren’t even sure had actually been used by anyone, “Just part of the plot. You’ll have to wait to see how it plays out.”
“Soooo…it’s not because you were upset that I was flirting with them?” Jason asked cautiously.
Tim’s head snapped up, “I - what?” They’d been very intentional in the way they’d acted to make sure Jason didn’t catch wind of…however they were feeling about the flirting, which wasn’t upset, but they still hadn’t figured out the best word to describe it.
“I just…wanna to make sure it’s okay,” Jason said slowly, dropping one of the paper plates into his trashbag. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
“You don’t,” Tim said quickly.
“Then why did you say that?” Jason asked quietly, dropping his hands to his side.
He didn’t even have to allude to what, Tim had seen his face when they’d said Jason shouldn’t have flirted with the first NPC available.
“It’s just a game,” Tim said softly, looking away because they were embarrassed. “I didn’t - I was going to make another character for you to actually flirt with if that’s what you wanted. Avery is just…I don’t know. They’re too much like me.”
“Right,” Jason said. “If the flirting’s bothering you, I’ll stop.”
“No, it’s-” Tim sighed. “It’s fine. With Avery, it just feels like you’re flirting with me.”
“I am flirting with you,” Jason said.
“No, I know,” Tim said, grabbing another plate to throw away. “And with other NPC’s it’ll be fine. I was just having trouble separating me and Avery. It won’t happen again.”
“Tim, I’m flirting with them because I want to flirt with you,” Jason said softly.
Tim paused, trying to process that. That couldn’t actually mean what they thought it meant.
“But I’ll stop,” Jason continued. “I don’t want you to be uncomfortable. I thought…I thought you were flirting back, which is why I kept going.”
Tim had been flirting back, mostly to trick Gilbert into trusting Avery, but…it had been nice. Especially getting Jason’s soft attention.
“I’m so sorry, Tim. I should’ve asked,” Jason continued. “I don’t-”
Tim straightened, looking over at him. Jason was avoiding eye contact, his fingers curled into fists. The coffee table between them was really inconvenient, especially since Tim liked this coffee table, but they stepped up onto it anyway, dropping the trash bag to the floor. Jason looked up at the noise just in time for Tim to wrap their arms around him in a hug. Jason hugged them back immediately, and Tim jumped off the table to wrap their legs around Jason’s waist.
“What are you-?” Jason started to ask, shifting his arms to better support Tim’s weight.
“I didn’t know it was meant for me,” Tim mumbled into Jason’s shoulder.
Jason stilled for a few moments before hugging Tim tighter. He pressed his face against Tim’s hair, breathing in deeply. Tim felt warmth spreading through their chest as they curled closer to him too. They stayed like that for a while, barely moving and not saying anything. Time passed - and Tim should’ve known how much, but they’d stopped paying attention - and Jason slowly sat down on the couch. Tim shifted a little, moving to press their face against Jason’s neck instead.
Jason carded a hand through their hair, “I didn’t start flirting until you told us Avery looked exactly like you. Everything was for you.”
Tim pulled back to look at him, their lips parting as they saw just how much longing and affection were in Jason’s eyes. They cupped his cheek before pressing their foreheads together. Tim closed their eyes, content to just stay like this, but then Jason tilted his head up a little and kissed them softly. Tim made a very embarrassing sound that they’d deny if Jason ever brought it up before kissing him back.
wizards & warriors
kiera shala 😈: realized i left my character sheet at tim’s, walked in to see tim and jason going at it on the couch, walked out
kiera shala 😈: character sheet forgotten 😔
apple ralana 🍏🧚🏻♀️: WHAT
apple ralana 🍏🧚🏻♀️: WHAT
apple ralana 🍏🧚🏻♀️: @game master 🎲 @Gilbert Redblade ❤️🔥⚔️ EXPLAINNNNNN
Isiah Fenrick ✨: 🫢
Follen Pernerva: What
apple ralana 🍏🧚🏻♀️: im driving back im driving back im driving back im
Isiah Fenrick ✨: Harper you owe me twenty dollars
kiera shala 😈: we dont know that yet
Isiah Fenrick ✨: yes we do
Thessawena Dratova: Hey, you cannot bet on people’s relationships
Thessawena Dratova: Unless you include me
kiera shala 😈: that seems like a great rule, guess these old bets are all null and void
Isiah Fenrick ✨: I just cashapp requested you
Isiah Fenrick ✨: I expect payment by eod
kiera shala 😈: 🫠
Delaney Tealeaf: You also owe me Harper
kiera shala 😈: 🫠
kiera shala 😈: idk why i bet against this
kiera shala 😈: i just thought tim would be too oblivious
kiera shala 😈: and in my defense
kiera shala 😈: tim usually is
apple ralana 🍏🧚🏻♀️: ur a dumb bitch
apple ralana 🍏🧚🏻♀️: anyway
apple ralana 🍏🧚🏻♀️: im at their apartment now, cant wait to go annoy the fuck out of them
kiera shala 😈: RUDE
kiera shala 😈: also im still in the parking lot 😏
apple ralana 🍏🧚🏻♀️: LETS AMBUSH TOGETHER
Ashraf Pernerva: Congratulations, Todd and Drake *Sent with confetti effect*
Follen Pernerva: …
Follen Pernerva: I owe Babs $20
Thessawena Dratova: 😈
Delaney Tealeaf: Me also
Follen Pernerva: No??? I don't??
Delaney Tealeaf: You do now
Thessawena Dratova: You do now
game master 🎲: if any of you come into my apartment again, your characters WILL be murdered
Gilbert Redblade ❤️🔥⚔️: Mine :D