Today was the day. Today was the day that Jim Gordon would be joining Blair and her ragtag group of maniacs for dinner. Yet, she still hadn't talked to Jason about it. She had been so busy helping Alfred around the house to settle the restlessness she felt at being kicked off patrol that she didn't have time to talk to Jason. It also didn't help that any time he walked into a room, she walked out.
Sucking up her pride, Blair walked out of her room, planning on knocking on Jason's door and warning him there. However, the door was wide open, Jason sprawled out on the bed listening to music with earbuds, eyes closed.
As if he sensed her presence, he opened an eye and took out one earbud before closing his eyes again, "May I help you?"
"My uncle is coming for dinner tonight." Blair started, playing with her fingers.
"What does that have to do with you being in my room?" Jason sighed, pausing his music and sitting up.
"You didn't have to—" Blair stopped herself, trying to get back on track. "Look, he's the commissioner and I know you have strong opinions about the police, opinions that could really ruin dinner."
Jason nodded, "So what are you asking me?"
"I'm asking you to please try to hold back. My uncle, he's the best person I know and he's tried to clean up the force the best he can—"
"Fine. I'll be quiet." Jason cut her off, not really wanting to get a lecture on how to behave at dinner.
Blair stopped, looking at him in disbelief, "Really? That's all you have to say about it? No snarky remarks or anything?"
"Nope." He replied, popping his lips on the "p".
"Okay then, I'm going to go get ready for dinner." Blair nodded, seeing that she wasn't going to get anymore out of him.
She was almost out the door when Jason spoke again, "Wait, Blair are you— how are you doing being off patrol?"
Blair froze at the door, not really sure what to say. Of all the things she thought Jason would say to her whenever they finally talked again, him asking about her wellbeing was not one of them. However, she wasn't about to tell him the truth, "I've been off patrol before. I can handle it."
Jason narrowed his eyes, thinking back of all the times he heard her waking up in the middle of the night, walking through the mansion, turning her music off and on. He'd even seen her running around the courtyard at three in the morning. If that's what she wanted to call "handling it", then he wasn't going to argue with her. That's what had gotten them in this position in the first place, "Fine, I'll see you at dinner."
"Yup." Blair replied, lips popping on the "p" like he had done previously, walking out of the room.
Jason hid a smile at the similar gesture, realizing that some of his habits were starting to rub off on the girl across the hall. Maybe there was some hope after all.
********
Blair was fixing her hair in the mirror when the doorbell rang, signaling the arrival of Jim Gordon. Taking one last look in the glass, she took a deep breath before putting on a smile and running out of her room to meet him.
Jason opened his door just as Blair ran past, just a blur of a girl. He followed at a normal pace behind her, not as enthused to start a dinner with a cop.
"Uncle Jim! You're finally here!" Blair exclaimed, throwing her arms around the older man when she got down the stairs.
Jason sauntered down the steps, stopping just a few feet away. He had never seen Blair with her uncle before, but it wasn't hard to see how much she loved and cared about him and vice versa. It reminded him of everything he had wanted growing up.
"Of course, I have to make sure they're treating you right here in this mansion." Jim joked, shaking Alfred's hand.
"Nice to see you Jim." Bruce's voice came from across the room as he walked to greet the commissioner. "I know Blair's missed you. She's talked about having you over for dinner for weeks."
"Just now found the time to come. Her living here isn't too much is it?"
"You can always take her if you want." Jason joked, immediately regretting his decision as Blair fixed him with a death glare from hell.
Bruce smiled slightly, brushing Jason's comment aside, trying to move past it, "No, she's no trouble, in fact she's a big help."
"A big help in getting me in trouble." He snorted.
"Stop!" Blair mouthed over her uncle's shoulder, her eyes angry but pleading. It was a weird combination. Weird enough to get him to shut his mouth.
Jim faced Jason directly for the first time since he arrived, a good natured smile on his face, "You must be the, what did you call him Blair? The cute—"
"YES! This is Jason, Uncle Jim. Just Jason. I didn't call him anything else." Blair interrupted, linking her arm through his and giving him a warning glance.
Jason flashed her an amused smirk as he shook Jim's hand. She had called him cute. "Yeah, nice to meet you."
********
Blair sat next to her uncle, across from Jason and Bruce. A plate of chicken was in front of her and she was trying her hardest to keep a light conversation going between the group. Jason had hardly said two words since his snarky remarks in the entryway and Blair was hoping that was his way of keeping his promise to her.
"So Jason, where are you from?" Jim asked the boy across the table, trying to make small talk.
"A bit of everywhere I guess." Jason responded. "Bruce picked me up off the streets."
Jim turned his head to look at his niece, "Blair didn't mention that when she talked about you."
"It wasn't my place to mention it Uncle Jim." That was true. When she had talked about Jason with Jim, she wanted to give him the details, but it didn't seem right. Jason didn't hide from the fact that he ran the streets of Gotham, but that wasn't her story to tell. It was his. Besides that, she had no idea if he had actually been living on the streets or if it had been a right place, right time moment.
"How long were you—"
"On the streets?" Jim nodded. Jason thought about it for a minute before answering. "A year maybe?"
Blair looked up from her plate, meeting Jason's eyes for the first time since he initially met Jim thirty minutes ago. A part of her knew that already, but it didn't stop her from feeling like the worst human being in the world for her attitude towards him. It was no wonder he hated her.
Jason saw the way Blair looked at him, the sympathy and regret in her eyes. That was the last thing he wanted, her feeling sorry for him. He wanted her to go back to hating him, anything but feeling sorry for him. "It wasn't all bad, really. I mean, there were a few run-ins with some piece of—" He stopped when he saw Blair shaking her head slowly. "I'm here now, so I did something right. Or wrong depending on the day and if my roommate decides to like me or not. She's scarier than the Joker when she's angry."
That did it. That one little comment brought the spark of anger back into Blair's eyes, "Jason!"
"Yes, Blair?" He smiled innocently, taking a drink of his Coke.
"Can I talk to you in the kitchen, please?" She said, mirroring his innocent smile as she stood up from her chair.
Jason looked over at Alfred in the corner who was failing to hide a smile. Of course he thought the situation was amusing. Blair was angry and he was about to suffer the consequences of making her angry. What wasn't funny about that?
He faced Blair's angrily calm face again and kept his voice as level as he could, "Mmm Alfred, are there dangerous things in the kitchen?"
"I don't believe you want the answer to that question, Master Jason." Alfred replied, pouring Bruce another glass of wine.
Blair didn't wait any longer before she yanked him out of his seat by the arm, "We'll be right back."
"Top ten things never to say in a horror movie." Jason muttered as she drug him out of the room.
Jim and Bruce sat in silence at the table, watching as the two rounded the corner before Jim burst out in laughter. Bruce smiled into his cup, "What are you laughing at?"
"I've never seen anyone more stubborn than those two in my entire life and my sister was Stephanie Wilde." Jim continued to laugh. Bruce looked over at the now empty doorway, thinking about how he had just thought the same thing.
********
Blair kept a death grip on Jason's arm as she pulled him into the kitchen. One night, one dinner, that was all she was asking for. It didn't seem like much to want to her, but apparently it was.
"Jesus Blair, you're the one making this dinner a huge fucking mess." Jason snapped, yanking his arm out of her grip, rubbing where her fingers had squeezed his jacket sleeve.
Blair's eyes widened, "What? No, I'm not! You keep making little snide comments about me and if I hadn't stopped you, you would've dragged the police! We had a deal!"
"We didn't have a deal. A deal means that I would've been getting something out of it." Jason rolled his eyes. "You're thinking way too much about this, B."
"Oh, so you're calling me that again?" She asked, crossing her arms. She really wanted to be annoyed with the nickname, she did, but she found that she actually enjoyed it.
"I never really stopped calling you that, I just stopped talking to you. There's a difference."
"Yeah, so you can complain about me and humiliate me in front of my uncle?"
"Now you're just being dramatic." He said, mirroring her stubborn stance. Blair narrowed her eyes, locking her jaw in angry defiance. Jason sighed, "Look, you really need to lighten up. Bruce said he wasn't going to let us on patrol until we learned to get along, so why are you still so hellbent on hating me?"
Blair dropped her arms, moving to the sink to clean some of the dishes before Alfred came in after dinner. Her brain was running a mile every second and she needed to focus on something that wasn't the boy in front of her.
"What? What are you doing?" Jason asked, watching her dip her hands in the water and start washing a plate.
"I'm helping Alfred." She shrugged. After a moment, she voiced her thoughts. "Look, I don't hate you, I just think you're childish and reckless."
Jason raised an eyebrow before shrugging off his jacket. She turned to ask him what he was doing when he dipped his hand in the soapy water, flicking it in her face, "Was that childish?"
Blair's jaw dropped in shock as she wiped the water off of her cheek, "Did you just fucking splash me?"
"Actually, I flicked it at your face. That's different than splashing." Jason grinned, a mischievous glint in his eye.
Blair turned back to the sink, cupping her hands in the water before splashing Jason in the face, "You mean, like that?"
"Oh, it's on Moon Doom!" Jason challenged, reaching for a cup floating in the soap-filled sink at the same time Blair reached for the bottle of soap nearby.
Before he even had the chance to move, Blair squeezed the bottle hard, the soap squirting all over Jason's shirt. He looked down, seeing the messy lines before looking back at her with a shocked but amused grin, "No! You did not just do that!"
"Oh, but I did!" She stuck her tongue out.
Jason filled the cup in his hand with soapy water, flinging it in her direction. Seeing his action coming, Blair ran backwards, moving to keep the kitchen island between them.
"Get BACK HERE!" Jason yelled, an idea sparking in his mind. He grabbed the sink nozzle, ready to run after her until he slipped on some of the water that ended up on the floor. He landed on the floor with a loud thud. "Shit!"
Blair ran over to him on the floor, checking to see if he had hurt himself, "Oh my God Jason, are you okay?!?"
Jason started laughing, spraying her in the face with the sink nozzle, causing her to scream. A wrestling match for control of the nozzle ensued, both managing to continue to spray each other, their laughter and screams filling the entire kitchen.
The doors to the kitchen swung open, unnoticed by the two covered in soap and water on the floor. Bruce moved forward to stop them when Jim put his arm out to stop him, "No, I haven't seen her laugh like that in months. Have you?"
Bruce looked over just as Jason smashed a foamy pile of soap into Blair's hair, causing her to laugh and spray him with the sink nozzle. Jim was right, he hadn't seen her have that much fun in ages. She had been so focused on being Knight Wolf, trying to track down Scarecrow remotely, or locked in her room that she was starting to shut down. It was nice to know that she still had the ability to laugh.
"You're right, they'll clean it up on their own." He said finally. "Let's go tell Alfred so he doesn't have a heart attack."
********
Blair stood at the kitchen sink ringing out a towel when Jason came back into the kitchen, mop in hand. After ten minutes of throwing water and soap at each other, she had gotten up, declaring they clean the mess they made before Alfred came in and had a conniption fit.
He was about to start mopping up the water by her feet when she cleared her throat, turning to look at him, towel still in hand, "Hey, I meant what I said earlier."
"The part about me being childish or the part when you called me an asshole for dumping an entire bottle of soap on your head?" He asked, leaning against the counter next to her.
"I meant it when I said I don't hate you." Blair said quietly, looking at him for a minute before turning back to the sink.
Jason stared at her quietly, absorbing what she had just said, all while taking a mental picture of the scene in front of him. Blair, her hair dripping wet from their water fight, a surprisingly peaceful look on her face. He knew she meant what she said. "Well, I don't hate you either."
Blair stopped what she was doing, looking at him in surprise. He didn't hate her? After everything she had put him through? Jason rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, "Why are you looking at me like that? Did you really think I hated you? I thought you hated me."
"I don't hate you, I never did. I just- I'm just- I was- shit!" Blair stammered out. Now it was Jason's turn to be surprised, he had never seen her so off guard before. "I was just angry with everyone. Bruce, you, myself—"
"Dick?" Jason finished for her. Blair closed her mouth, nodding slightly. She had never said it aloud before, but it was true. She was angry at Dick for leaving and angry for putting that burden on her.
"Besides that, I thought you hated me. I mean, I'm—"
"Bitchy, all around unpleasant?" Blair gave him an amused look, but didn't disagree. "I'm kidding. I mean, I thought you were those things at first, but then there was that day a few weeks ago when we were training. You actually laughed when I teased you instead of trying to kill me with a look. I've never hated you, even when you were being the world's biggest bitch."
Blair laughed, picking up another wet towel off the ground, "That's one way to put it."
"I can finish all this so you can spend time with your uncle." Jason offered suddenly, remembering what they were there for in the first place.
Blair shook her head, "I can't ask you to clean all this when it's partially my mess—"
"It's fine, I know you were excited about him being here and I kinda messed that up."
"You didn't—"
"Blair, I'm trying to do something nice here. Can you let me?" He grabbed the towel out of her hands, throwing it in the empty side of the sink.
Blair opened her mouth to argue when Jim poked his head through the door, "Hey, you said you wanted to show me how you're living here, why not a tour?"
Jason raised his eyebrows, motioning his head toward the door, "Go, I got this."
"Are you sure?" Blair hesitated, not wanting to leave him with the mess.
"You can pay me back later. Go. Take my jacket while you're at it, you look cold." He insisted, handing her the jacket.
Blair took it, shrugging it over her shoulders before walking to the door. Jason hid a smile, seeing how big the sleeves were on her. He was about to start mopping up the water when she came back in, "Hey, didn't I say I got this?"
"You did, and I believe you." She nodded. "I just wanted to say thank you."
"Oh. Well, it's not that big of a deal." He shrugged, feeling his face heat up.
"It is. You know it is." Blair argued. "Whenever you're done, Uncle Jim suggested a movie night. You in?"
"Hell yeah, I'm in."
"Good." And with one more small smile, she walked out of the kitchen, leaving him with a mess of water to clean up, and grin on his face.