DC x Reader One-shots

af·fec·tion - Jaime Reyes [Blue Beetle III]

Summary: Jaime can say a lot of things are weird about his life: one of his best friends is from an obsolete future, he has a snarky sentient piece of alien technology fused to his spine for life, and his partner always seems to flinch when he reaches out to touch them. At first, he thinks it is little more than them being jumpy and spaced out, until Khaji Da informs him that scans show genuine fear and anxiety.

Notes: Requested by @pink-lemonadae-san (Tumblr) for a reader with haphephobia (fear of physical contact). Will be honest, I do not have this, nor do I really feel like I can do it justice, so I think the reader just ended up being severely touch adverse – which I do understand because that is occasionally my brand of autistic. I really didn't wanna butcher things too bad for this fear. Also, more geared towards Young Justice, the Animated Series.

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Jaime can say a lot of things are weird about his life: one of his best friends is from an obsolete future, he has a snarky sentient piece of alien technology fused to his spine for life, and his partner always seems to flinch when he reaches out to touch them.

He almost doesn't notice it at first – the way that you seem to flinch when someone touches you, muscles tense. But you always seem quick enough to hide it with a smile that seems painfully faked to him and an assurance that you really are fine, just spaced out a bit. But after each time, you seem to curl in on yourself a bit tighter and put some more distance between yourself and anybody within the immediate vicinity.

Jaime just thinks it has more to do with you spacing out than it does anything else, or maybe you're just not as keen on touch. That much was fine, while a lot of the people he knew could be touch driven, that did not mean that everyone was. So, Jaime avoided touching you as much as he could, at least while you were friends.

Things began to shift a bit more when he finally asked you out, overjoyed when you agreed to a date. And then even more elated when at the end of the night when you ask him for a second one. Not wanting to push his luck, he had not asked for a kiss, instead reaching out for a hug, which you had returned – but not before he swore that he saw a flicker of fear across your face.

You never said anything about it though, and so he brushed it off.

Things continued on this way for a while.

Jaime does not just jump in to touching you, choosing instead to keep it more reserved, at least in public. Major PDA certainly doesn't seem like the sort of thing that you would be on board with, and he cannot fault you for that much. But the little touches do pick up more in private – taps on the shoulder, a quick hug, etc. Things seemingly so innocent that Jaime never pays their acts a second mind.

The fact that you never initiate them seems to go over his head. After all, you show your affections for him in other ways – ones that have become obvious to him as the relationship had progressed, so it never comes down to a question of your feelings.

And still he chalks up the jumping to you being lost within your own head. You wouldn't be the first person he knows to be like that, and you never tell him otherwise. Any discomfort on your part is quickly hidden.

Khaji Da has been, for the most part, instructed to leave it be – when the sentient tech had expressed a desire to scan you earlier on. Feeling too much like an invasion of privacy, while also throwing the agreement that only teammates could be scanned and only in battle. As far as people that Jaime trusted went, that was. So reluctantly Khaji Da had backed off the topic. After all, the scarab had been assured, if something was wrong, they had to trust that their partner would be upfront about it.

That was likely why it surprises Jaime so much when Khaji Da pipes up one day, directly after he has hugged you.

"Scans indicate that your partner is afraid, Jaime Reyes."