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m00nslippers · 6 years ago

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Since you reminded us all of the JayRa's Roadtrip au: could we have some fluff of them with each other (or in an abo case their kid :D ) Also! Could I write something loosely based off of it for Ra'sbat week if I give credit? thanks!

You absolutely can write something based on the RoadTrip!AU. Saves me having to write stuff, lol. If you do, @ me so I can read and reblog it!

Here, I wrote something for the AU. It’s not really fluff? Maybe at the end a little. I don’t know, but here you all go.

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I Didn’t Ask For This (a RoadTrip!AU fic)

Ra's' behavior had been atrocious throughout the whole ill-advised venture, starting from when Jason had busted the Demon’s Head out of Lady Shiva's oubliette where he'd been left to starve and die in solitude, to their globe-trotting jaunt hitting every League base they could find, cleaning out Shiva's loyalists, searching for information on Talia and Sensei and anything that could give them an edge against the Shadows. Jason had owed Ra's a save, for letting Talia take him in and getting him training, for taking care of him when he'd been catatonic and planning to continue doing so for his whole life if necessary, so he'd felt compelled to do the bare minimum to ensure the asshole's survival. He didn't know where the idea to put the man back in charge of the League came from. When it came down to it Ra's wasn't much better than Shiva, he might claim he was killing people for the planet, but from where Jason was sitting it didn't look that different.

Yet here they were, on a goddamn road trip across the country, raiding every League base they could find together and there were a lot, way more than Jason had any inkling of.

The man had started out condescending, waspish, constantly degrading Jason and his low birth, his inferior skill and lack of talent. The normal shit he'd been telling Talia since day-one when she had brought Jason home. He was no good, he was low born, had poor breeding, he was destined for the dirt—Jason had heard it all before.

At first he'd put up with it. When you get overthrown and tossed in a hole in the ground to die you're allowed to be a bit pissy, at least for a day or two, but after a week of constant berating Jason was fast reaching his limit. Pathetic to say, but Jason was used to the treatment, he used to believe he deserved it, and sometimes he still did. But the longer Jason stayed silent the worse it seemed to get. Ra's didn't have a global criminal empire at his beck and call anymore, so there was no reason to let the man get away with this kind of behavior.

“This place is filthy,” Ra's spat, running a finger through the dust layer that had accumulated in the six months it had been since Jason had visited this particular obscure safe house. “But what do I expect from my daughter's useless mutt? But I suppose you think this is acceptable, being as you are used to living in the scum and grime of the worse parts of that sewer of a city. I'm sure you're actually proud of your substandard accomplishments.”

Jason had been listening to this shit for over an hour as he cleaned and restocked their weapons and supplies. He was refilling the magazine cartridges to his pistols, suffering through a lecture about Jason's incompetence, his laziness, his heritage of poverty and how baffled Ra's still was that the Bat he so respected had stooped to taking in a mongrel such as Jason, when his patience just...ran out.

Jason pushed the now full magazine up into his gun, racked the slide to put a bullet in the chamber and aimed it at the immortal.

And Ra's Al Ghul, former Demon's Head, the man who used be unafraid of injury or death because he knew at any moment his body could be restored, flinched.

He flinched and clearly hated himself for flinching, and the six-foot-five alpha drew himself up to his full height, looming furiously, lip snarling beneath his sharp aquiline features and finely trimmed goatee, acid green-eyes glaring at Jason's gall. “You dare, boy--!” he began in outrage.

But Jason's expression didn't waver from regarding Ra's with disinterest as he leveled the gun with a steady hand. Jason was fed up with his shit. People had been saying he wasn't worth anything his entire life, because Jason was poor, because he was a street rat, because he was an omega, because he was an omega that looked like an alpha. He didn't deserve this kind of treatment from the man he'd rescued. He didn't expect a 'thank you', Ra's was too much of an arrogant shit for that, but at the very least he expected not to be insulted.

“Ra's I don't give one flying fuck if you were an emperor or a sultan or whatever back in the freaking dark ages,” Jason stated matter-of-factly and his low, serious tone seemed to startle Ra's into silence as he listened. “All these servants and so called loyal retainers that make you elite? They ain't here. Not a one lifted their finger to get you out when you were sentenced to death. The one who saved you? The one who got you out? That was me, the low born dog you're insulting. Yeah, I was born in shit and I ain't got much even now, my safe houses aren't decked out like the Ritz, but what little I've got I'm sharing with you. I'm putting a contract on my life for you. And what am I asking from you in return? Nothing but that you keep your damned nasty comments to yourself. Do you hear me?”

Ra's luminous green eyes narrowed, analyzing Jason as if seeing him for the first time, darting around Jason's face, across his body, to the gun aimed steadily at Ra's chest for a killing shot, back to Jason's sea-glass green eyes. Ra's was silent a moment more before he finally said, “Yes,” through gritted teeth and turned on his heels, stalking to the only room in the one bedroom apartment and pulling the door shut.

Jason sighed and lowered the gun, returning to his tasks in blessed quiet. Being around anyone all-day-everyday, much less a testy alpha that liked to tell him how pathetic he was, was enough to drive Jason crazy. The gun was maybe a bit much but...well, what was done was done. This incident probably wouldn’t change anything but at least it had given Jason’s nerves a rest so he could deal with the Demon’s shit again tomorrow. Jason slept on the couch like the dog he was, and didn't see Ra’s again until the next day when they tossed their gear into the nondescript green SUV that was their transportation this week.

Jason took the drivers' seat, as he always did, and expected Ra's to slip into the back seat like usual, as if Jason was his damned chauffeur, but he didn't. He opened the passenger door and slid in, messing around with the controls before he figured out how to adjust the seat to accommodate his extensive height. He had insisted Jason adjust it before, pushing the chair all the way forward to give him leg room in the back seat, and watching Ra's Al Ghul messing with the seat position himself now was surreal.

Finally satisfied, Ra's sat back and pushed up his sunglasses, crossing his arms over his emerald-green silk button-up shirt and black slacks, dressed like he'd stepped out of a GQ magazine, and stared firmly ahead as if the situation wasn't completely abnormal.

“The hell is this? Decided to sit with the servants, your highness?” Jason asked skeptically, almost certain he was going to regret it. Then again that never stopped Jason from speaking his mind before.

Ra's bit the inside of his mouth and looked physically pained as he bit out, “It has come to my attention that I have been...treating you poorly, Jason.”

“Ya think?” Jason deadpanned, not sure where this was going but taking the opportunity to get back a bit of his own dignity against the asshole alpha.

“You have risked much for me and I have done little to earn that loyalty,” the man stated, the nails of one hand digging into his arm, but he pressed on, Jason becoming more intrigued and confused as he continued. Ra's didn't admit to mistakes, Ra's didn't think of loyalty as something earned, at least not when it came to Jason.

“I, the Demon's Head, who has seen the worst of humanity, who began the League of Assassins to cull them for the sake of this planet's continued survival, fell pray to my own baser instincts, my own emotions and prejudices,” Ra's confessed. “When my daughter took you in, I never gave you your due, even when you proved yourself time and again. Even now you continue to make yourself an irreplaceable ally and I...have shown you nothing but disdain.”

Behind his sunglasses, Ra's eyes fell to his knee, proud brows wrinkled in distaste that for once was turned inward and not unfairly at Jason. “I was at the end of my means, my death certain after so many years of prolonging my life. I had no one, and nothing to offer anyone—and yet you appeared as my savior. But instead of gratitude and praise, I offered you only criticism, to raise myself above you who I had thus far held in low regard for reasons that I now see where based in pretty lies to justify my actions.”

Suddenly Ra's looked up and held Jason's gaze. He enunciated the words with difficulty, as if fighting to get them out, but he seemed genuinely sincere as he said, “Jason Todd, I...apologize. I will endeavor to correct my behavior. You are one who is worthy of my respect.”

Jason stared as Ra's fell silent. Through the man's confession, Jason's throat had begun to clench, his muscles tightening as if every word was winding him tighter and tighter. His eyes were burning and he had to fight not to blink because if he did he knew a tear would form. So long as he kept his eyes open, he could pretend to be unmoved.

He hadn't expected this. Not in a million years and not from Ra's Al Ghul of all people after holding the man at fucking gunpoint and telling him off. These were words Jason had wanted to hear for years, from Bruce, from Dick, from...from a lot of people that meant a lot more to him than Ra's. His whole life Jason had just wanted to do the right thing, to be worthy in a world that saw him as trash. He'd thought Bruce was different, but at the first opportunity Jason was replaced as if he'd meant nothing, and as soon as Jason wasn't exactly what the man wanted, when he disagreed with him about how to save their city—the city Jason had lived and been born in, had experience in every way more than Bruce ever had—he was called a villain.

Jason would have liked to get some acknowledgment from Bruce for all of that, but instead he got it from Ra's. He didn't want Ra's Al Ghul's fucking apology. Jason never cared what Ra's thought of him.

So why the fuck did hearing this all of a sudden make him want to cry? Why did it mean so damn much?

Jason felt the tear grow heavy and start to roll down his face so he raised a hand to hide it even if the gesture was pointless. Ra's already knew. He must. There was no hiding how broken up Jason was by his words, how much they had impacted him. Jason's emotions, his weakness, should have been enough to have the man revoking everything he'd just given to Jason, but Ra's didn't, he remained quiet in the front seat, looking out the windshield as if nothing out of the ordinary was taking place. It helped, that he was ignoring it. Jason was able to pull himself together and he wiped his eyes, put on his own sunshades to hide his red-rimmed eyes and leaned over the center console to open the dash compartment and pull out a map that he dropped into Ra's lap.

“If you're gonna sit up here, might as well make yourself useful,” Jason said, somehow managing to keep his voice from quivering as he turned the key and put it the car into gear.

Ra's huffed in amusement and unfolded the map. “If you had a map all along, then how were you able to become lost for four hours yesterday?”

Jason frowned, trying to hide his embarrassment at the event. “Hey, you try to drive and read a map at the same time and not crash, it ain't easy!”

Ra's eye lids lowered, unimpressed but also maybe...somewhat fond. “I suppose not. And we mustn’t use GPS navigation to avoid tracking. Your driving has been satisfactory, I suppose I can aid you in the navigation aspect of the task.”

Jason snorted. Ra's reading a road map was going to be interesting. Let him see how tough it actually was—you needed a damn microscope to see half the road names. “Great, now help me navigate to the nearest Denny's. I'm starving.”

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