Black Dahlia || Dick Grayson [Titans] ✔️

COULDN'T HURT

Present Day

It wasn't a long drive to San Francisco, really, but I'd apparently fallen asleep at one point. And I know this because the thing that woke me up was a sudden slapping at my arm.

I opened my eyes and turned to complain at Jason only to find that the vine piece I kept so handy had grown out and was wrapped tight around his neck. "What the fuck?" was all I managed to blurt out before it receded quickly, leaving him gasping for air and clutching at his throat.

"I could say the same thing," he said hoarsely. "I know you just died and everything but a poke to wake you up is not worth me dying, okay? I don't have that resurrection option."

"I swear I had nothing to do with that and I have no idea why they keep attacking you in my sleep."

"Yeah, well maybe have Dick look into that when he gets a chance. We're here," he replied bitterly, rubbing lightly at the redness that was his neck. He pointed to the building across the street from us but barely looked at it himself. "That's the place; it has a motion sensor activated camera so all you have to do is stand in front of it and it'll alert them upstairs. If it isn't Dick who answers, just tell them you're a friend of his or mine, in trouble, and they should let you up."

I stared at him in silence until he turned to look at me and shrugged. "What?"

"Those words sound a lot like instructions from a person who has no intention of going with me," I said, angling myself towards him.

"I'm not," Jason said simply and I narrowed my eyes at him. "Hey, you're the one who needs the help, not me. I don't want to be anywhere near this place right now."

"Oh, I'm sorry," I laughed sarcastically. "Apparently, somehow, I gave you the impression that I did. Let me clear that up for you; I don't want to be here. Possibly even less than you do. And maybe I do need to be here, where as you don't. Doesn't change the fact that if you leave me here on my own, I will leave. And then you'll have left your motorcycle in another city for no reason at all."

"Doesn't bother me any, I'll just have Alfred send for it or something."

"Yeah? And maybe I'll let Hurricane and his backers know that I'm alive and well and let them think I'm still home. Bet money they would go to further lengths to ensure I'm dead and stay that way this time; the kind of lengths that decimate whole buildings and anything in its surrounding area. Including parking lots and all that's left in them."

"Are you fucking serious right now?" Jason laughed incredulously. "You're trying to blackmail me with the demise of my bike? Just because you're trying to avoid Dick for some reason?"

"Well, there's that and also this unshakeable need to keep you around to entertain me," I smiled.
"Honestly, I've never met anyone so prone to being a victim of plant abuse. Which says a lot when you consider how we met." Jason didn't respond, just quietly stared across the street almost haunted. "Jason, did something happen to you here?"

"Not physically in this building, no," he answered quietly. "But definitely as an affect of it. Of me being apart of it."

"I know this won't do anything for you in anyway, but I have my own demons with this place too," I offered up, my voice sounding distant even to my own ears. I saw his head turn slightly to look at me out of the corner of his eye, but I didn't acknowledge it. "I don't just mean Dick, either. A few years ago, I used to live here too, with Dick and Donna. My room was just down the hall from hers and I spent a lot of time just bothering her. I was like her annoying younger sister; if Donna did it, then I wanted to too."