Chapter Text
Finally the Autumn chill made way for Winter, crisp air turning freezing and nipping at the exposed skin of all that stood outside too long. Days became shorter and nights grow longer, the perfect time of year for the bats. And one spider.
Peter’s spider instincts had finally calmed down, leaving Peter’s human brain in complete control once again. Jason had to admit he did miss some of the spider habits, even if many of them seemed to stick.
Peter still purred any time he was happy or proud of himself. Pressing himself up against whatever had made him so chuffed as if trying to infect them with his joy. This had led to a very awkward time in the cave when Tim had worked with Peter to change an antidote Peter had, tailoring it to be geared less towards a sand-man and more towards their very own clay one. Tim had raised the vial into the air, a bright grin splitting his cheeks and Peter had launched himself across the table. Pulling Tim into a bone crushing hug as he purred happily at their success. (Jason wasn’t jealous though. Peter had a second kind of purr that only Jason ever got to hear. One that rumbled not from his chest, but through his entire body when the two of them got a rare moment to be alone.)
If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever -Alfred Lord Tennyson
Another was his biological webs. He rarely used them on patrol, but occasionally Jason would catch Peter webbing things up and sticking them to random objects to remind himself to do something with them later. Keys on the side of a cupboard, gutted machine parts on the underside of the dining room table. Jason had to have a proper sit down talk about it when he’d walked into their kitchen only to find Peter in the middle of webbing Jason’s helmet to the oven. Peter also liked to web little cocoons when the weather got very cold. Many times Jason had woken up to find he’d been dragged into the little tent of webs, surrounded by blankets and a spider boyfriend halfway into hibernation because he’d accidentally gone out for a little too long. Jason would just yawn, roll over, and pull Peter closer before falling back asleep. He would wake up the next morning with Peter half burrowed under his shirt and sleeping peacefully. Jason would lay there and bask in the peace he so rarely got to experience before this.
It is difficult to know at what moment love begins; It is less difficult to know that it has begun. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Peter also went non-verbal at times. Sometimes after an especially rough day, or patrol, he just couldn’t find the energy to speak. He had started to chirp or hum in ways that regular humans wouldn’t. Tapping his fingers on any hard surface in specific patterns that each had different meanings. After a while of this Jason was able to pick up on the meanings of each sound. Some of the easier ones he was able to mimic, they always made Peter happy, and Jason felt that with enough practice he might get the rest of them. Entire conversations could be had in front of the other bats between just the two of them that gave Jason a warm feeling in his chest when Peter beamed at him afterwards.
Jason had his days too, when his old scars flared up and his whole body ached in ways that no man as young as him should ever experience, Peter was there. Soothing hands helping Jason yet not crowding him. Never making Jason feel trapped or like he was incapable. Peter would make Jason’s favourite tea for his throat when the batarang scar got irritated, or bundle him up in the softest and warmest blanket they owned when Jason felt just a little too cold to be alive. He would lay with Jason and just talk about anything and everything when his mind felt detached and his body didn’t feel like his own. Hands rubbing gently along his spine and tapping gently as he grounded Jason and stopped his mind from truly escaping like a helium balloon in the wind. On days when his autopsy scar felt loose and Jason feared his insides could spill at the slightest of movements Peter was there, holding him close as he cried and shouted and begged. Smiling down at him with such love that Jason didn't know what to do with himself.
I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears of all my life; and, if god choose, I shall but love thee better after death. - Elizabeth Barrett Browning
They weren’t perfect, they had fought before. Jason didn’t even remember what it was about anymore. But he remembered the acrid taste of rage as he yelled things he didn’t truly mean. Remembered the salty taste of repressed tears as he slammed his bedroom door and sank to the floor to cry silently over things he hadn’t thought of since he still wore that cape and bright red tunic. But Jason also remembered the hour later, when both of them had opened their doors at the exact same time to apologise. Looking just as broken up over it as the other did. They apologised and cried, laughed and then fell into each other’s arms on the couch to just soak up the other’s presence as they both apologised over and over until the word lost all meaning and they were dozing together as the late morning sun rose above the skyline.
The course of true love never did run smooth - A midsummer night's dream - Shakespeare
No, they weren’t perfect at all. But they were perfect for each other. Even when Jason would obnoxiously re-enact Macbeth in their living room, flinging his arms wildly and accidentally knock over a glass. Or when Peter would walk across the ceiling because he enjoyed the way Jason looked everywhere but up to find him. Or when the two of them made Bruce want to tear his hair out because they’d ‘accidentally’ blown up a warehouse owned by Black Mask again. The two of them simply smiled, pressed against each other as Jason drove them out of the Batcave at breakneck speeds.
They have many years to come, many trials to face. Future failures, future goals. But they would face them together. And that's all they truly want.
Then I met you, and I realised the universe had orchestrated my whole life just to bring us together. Destiny - J. Strelou
Thank you so much for reading this, it was very fun to write and I enjoyed reading everyone's comments on the little things the two of them got up to. I may write an after chapter of them a few years later if enough people are interested. Until then I hope you enjoyed this and have this little drawing I made of the two of them. Pretend you can't see I am unable to draw backgrounds. :)
After I finish the last two chapters for 'Many toxins' that I'm writing for my friend I will start on the peter in Gotham fic because I love writing these two idiots in love
