
Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/979185.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage
  Category:
      M/M
  Fandom:
      Batman_(Comics), DCU_(Comics)
  Relationship:
      Jason_Todd/Bruce_Wayne, Alfred_Pennyworth_&_Bruce_Wayne
  Character:
      Jason_Todd, Bruce_Wayne, Alfred_Pennyworth
  Additional Tags:
      Unresolved_Sexual_Tension, Unresolved_Emotional_Tension, Masturbation,
      Age_Difference, Mildly_Dubious_Consent, POV_Third_Person_Limited, Present
      Tense, Soul_Bond, Telepathy, Titled_by_iTunes, Tea, Self-Denial
  Series:
      Part 3 of Bonds_That_Tie
  Stats:
      Published: 2013-09-24 Chapters: 2/2 Words: 2775
****** Shackled ******
by kkscatnip_(autohaptic)
Summary
     And deep inside
     you will bleed for me
***** Push It *****
It's not like Jason sits around thinking about shit he can do to get under
Bruce's skin or anything.
Well, okay, he does, just a little. But that's not all he does. In between
Alfred's parade of equivalency tests and other bullshit like that, he's spent
the last two and a half days pretty much running around Bruce's property and
not having anybody even hint to him that he shouldn't.
Bruce never does show him the secret to the grandfather clock, so he spends
twenty minutes figuring it out for himself, after the first barrage of tests.
Of course Bruce doesn't even have the grace to look like his feathers are
ruffled when Jason saunters into the Cave, but Jason can feel a strange mix of
annoyance and pride that he's pretty sure aren't actually his emotions. It's
always easy to tell when Bruce gets worked up, but lower-key things? Sometimes
Jason gets confused.
After that, he starts exploring outside. Just--because. He needs to know about
the area around him. He needs to feel like he can get away if things go wrong.
Most of all, he needs to get away from how empty the manor feels when Bruce
isn't there.
In the next a day and a half, he finds three alternate Cave entrances. Only one
of them actually gets him down there without needing some kind of rigging, and
he's not even reasonably sure he can get back out again. If he were taller,
maybe, but definitely not as he is.
Jason also figures out about six ways that he can get off of the property
without being caught on too many cameras outside of the manor itself. He
doesn't look for them his first trip out, but after he gets into the cave and
finds Bruce watching him approach via various camera angles? He looks for them.
And is fairly sure that he finds most of them.
It gets monotonous, though, by the time it's dark and Jason's sitting alone by
himself in one of the smaller dining rooms, listening to Alfred tell Jason
about how he's sure that Master Bruce will be able to join him tomorrow, but
he's currently preparing for a major shareholder meeting in two weeks.
Mostly it sounds like bullshit to Jason, but he figures out on the second day
that maybe the bond controls his mind a little more than he strictly wants it
to when he walks past Bruce's room and it smells like him and Jason can't stop
himself from going inside.
Bruce's robes hang right where they should. He wore the obnoxiously short lime
green one this morning; Jason goes over to it and buries his face in the soft
folds and just inhales as deeply as he can.
The arousal is like a gut punch, takes his breath away and makes his mind just.
Stutter to a halt.
Getting down onto the floor--his knees are far too weak to support him, and
dizzy doesn't quite cover where his head is--and pulling Bruce's robe over his
face as he shoves a hand down his sweat pants. He's already hard, already
straining and so slick that his fingers slip at first and he ends up making
high, needy, and frustrated noises until he gets a good grip on his dick.
Ah, God, it feels amazing, Bruce's scent all around him and the weight of the
robe on his shoulders and--everything. Jason comes embarrassingly fast, but he
can feel Bruce's regard, feel the weight of it and that secondhand arousal and
the denial. The denial hurts, Jason's not gonna even try to pretend it doesn't,
but the fact that Bruce has trouble with the denial at first? That feels like
every hug Jason's ever gotten times a thousand.
*
The other thing Jason does is take showers. Romping around what Alfred calls
"the grounds"--just a fancy way to say 'a bunch of woods', as far as Jason can
tell--makes Jason sweaty and muddy, and the shower in Jason's room? It makes
getting dirty that much better.
His first shower is like, an hour long. He locks the bathroom door but not the
bedroom door and climbs in and there's two shower heads on each of the three
tiled walls, plus a detachable shower head that lets Jason get cleaner than
he's ever been before, which is fucking amazing.
Part of Jason wants to thank Bruce for the shower, but he knows, knows if he
does that it'll give away so many things that he doesn't want Bruce to have
confirmation about. It's one thing for Bruce to suspect, but somebody like him?
They won't know until Jason tells them, and Jason sure as shit ain't gonna do
that. Ever.
*
Bruce is home, but he's down in the cave, and Jason can feel the buzz of his
nervousness like a bunch of wasps flying around his head, stinging every so
often. He's pretty fucking sure that Bruce and Alfred are talking about him--
he's gotta be talking with Alfie, there's really nobody else it makes sense for
him to be talking to at three on a Wednesday afternoon--and the little stings
are distracting.
Not that Jason minds being distracted from the stupid homework assignments that
the tutor who came this morning gave him, but. If they're talking about him, he
wants to be there.
He won't be able to, though. As soon as he shows up, they'll find some reason
to go do something else, and he'll be high and dry again, and why can't he just
have like, stayed a normal person and not bonded some perverted middle-aged
vigilante?
Except he's Batman, which makes him the perverted middle-aged vigilante, Jason
supposes.
Urgh, whatever, his head hurts, and now that he was thinking about Bruce, his
dick is hard. Unavoidable side effect; it happens every time. Every. single.
time.
And Bruce has to try so hard to block Jason off when Jason masturbates that
sometimes it makes it worth it. He holds that thought as he strips and heads
toward the shower, turning the water on hot, hot, hot.
(He'll probably never get over how amazing it is that he can just turn a knob
in a nice, clean, huge shower and this luxurious hot water pours out and--he
loves hot showers, in that deep, abiding way that he loves the taste of
Alfred's cooking.)
The scorch of the hot water against Jason's back and arms only makes his dick
jump, makes it perk up even more, makes it dribble a little precome, because if
all he needs to do is think about Bruce and stand under hot water for this? He
can't imagine what it'll be like when they actually get down to it.
Probably he'll come right away. He only started actually shooting come a couple
months ago, and he's still--sometimes it's not difficult to get off.
But today there's the wasps in his head, and they prickle at his skin
unpleasantly, even as he slides one hand down his stomach and wraps it around
his dick. It feels amazing, and he can't stop himself from gasping Bruce's
name.
For bare seconds, the wasps are gone and Bruce's regard is heavy in his head,
Bruce's sudden arousal. Sudden everything. It makes Jason groan happily and
grip himself harder than he should, satisfaction almost as good as Bruce
actually paying attention.
But then Bruce feels guilty and the wasps are back. Jason leans back against
the wall, then flips around, reaching up to adjust the shower head to pour down
directly on him. God, it feels amazing, and maybe Jason will get callouses on
his dick from all the masturbating he's doing, but he kind of doubts it.
Ignoring the wasps is harder than Jason wants it to be, and it takes a minute
or so of nothing but water and his hand on his dick to get to where he doesn't
feel their constant stings. "Bruce," Jason pants, desperate in a way he really
didn't want to be.
Bruce's attention is there again, washing over Jason's senses and making him
arch his hips into his hand, back bending against the wall.
Then the wasps are back, angrier than ever.
He needs--he wants to feel Bruce inside of him, wants that connection, that...
just Bruce inside of him, buried deep. Pinning Jason against the wall? Alfred
kind of supplied the shower with one of those squirt-top bottles full of lube,
on Jason's second day. He'd been embarrassed, but not upset, because. He
couldn't deny--didn't want to deny.
Fuck, sometimes it felt like Jason practically lived for the feeling of sliding
two fingers into himself. For the slight stretch and the awkward angle and the
way it makes it so easy to lean hard against the warm tile and pretend it's
Bruce. Pressing him there, fingering him. Knowing exactly what Jason needs, and
exactly how to give it.
"Bruce." It comes out a high whine. "Fuck, Bruce, I need you inside of me so
fucking--so--bad."
There's a flicker of Bruce's attention, warm and amazing, and then gone, more
wasps. Jason whimpers at it, whimpers and almost sobs. But he doesn't stop
jacking himself off, doesn't stop fingering. Can't.
"Bru-uu-ccce," Jason draws out his name without meaning to, broken by sobs,
throat beginning to feel raw. "Oh fuck, please!" And he can feel Bruce, feel
him unable to block Jason, unable to completely disconnect himself. Jason holds
onto that thread as hard as he can.
It's building so fast, that tight coil. "Fuck, fuck." And Jason is just--off
rhythm, but it doesn't fucking matter. Nothing fucking matters but knowing that
Bruce is aroused, knowing that Bruce is paying attention. He screams when he
comes, and the sound echoes, and in the space between the echoes, the wasps
come back.
Jason sags against the tiles in the aftermath, pulls his fingers out of himself
slowly and holds them under the spray. Still just as hot as before.
He took a two hour shower, once, and the water temperature didn't waver at all.
Another ten minutes will be just fine. He soaps himself up, and when the wasps
go away again and it's just Bruce, Jason smiles, lifting his head.
Bruce is just a tease, though. He's gone, and the wasps are back, but this time
they're not quite so bad. They're still wasps, though. Still stinging him where
there should only be warmth and goodness from the bond.
One day Jason is going to kill every goddamn one of those goddamn wasps.
***** In the Morning *****
"Master Bruce?" Alfred asks, his tone implying that Bruce's attention is
wandering.
It is. Bruce has already distanced himself from Jason's moment-to-moment
feelings and actions, but there are some which are more difficult to ignore.
Masturbation in and of itself is not difficult to ignore, but Jason just gasped
Bruce's name, and the sound of it pulls at Bruce's core.
Not to mention that the small spike of Jason's satisfaction at having
distracted Bruce is far more appealing than is safe.
This bond with Jason jeopardizes far too many things. Bruce pushes Jason's
consciousness away, into the niche where it belongs, and refocuses on Alfred.
"I apologize, old friend. It seems Jason is learning to pinpoint the actions
which the bond demands I not ignore."
The way Alfred presses his lips together for a moment mirrors the regret in
Bruce's soul for the fact that he's now subjecting a twelve year old boy to a
bond which he cannot possibly be in any way ready for. Alfred just nods,
though. "Have you informed Master Dick of your new ward?"
Bruce shakes his head. He wishes he could call it protection, keeping Dick's
hopes alive, but in truth it is raw cowardice which has prevented him from
telling Dick.
Alfred's gaze is merciless, as Bruce should be with himself. "When will you
tell him?"
"Soon. I will tell him soon." He must; if Dick finds out on his own, things
will be nastier, given the way Dick has sought to be soul bonded to Bruce since
he was only a couple years older than Jason.
Though bonds are largely considered superstition, like ghosts, Bruce never
questioned Dick's desire to be bonded, as his parents had been. He pored
through books, read all of the first-hand information that he could, and
discovered that they typically happen upon a combination of the first skin-on-
skin touch and some other sense. Bruce has only ever read about vision, though
he's long suspected that if someone's primary sense were something other than
vision, it could work that way.
Which meant that Bruce bonding with Dick was and is highly unlikely. It is
possible--Bruce is learning to believe that nothing he can imagine is truly
impossible, whether it's magic or technology--but not probable.
Especially with Jason now bonded to him.
"Bruce," Jason pants against his arm and buries his face there for a moment,
hand speeding on his cock, water running down his body.
Grinding his teeth would serve no purpose. Bruce merely claps his hands
together instead, focusing on the feel of his muscles clenching, of flesh
squeezing flesh, the hard quality of muscle and tendon straining under his
fingertips.
Jason's showering. He does it often, for his current purpose and, Bruce is
fairly positive, because being clean and hot water are welcome novelties for
him.
But now Bruce cannot see, hear, or feel Jason, except as a pulsing heat in that
same niche in Bruce's mind. Excellent.
"I regret the circumstances of--"
"I wouldn't, sir," Alfred says, short and simple. The only kind of reproof
Bruce has ever needed. "Regret will only hurt him."
Bruce dips his head in acknowledgment. It's clear what Alfred isn't saying:
that if Bruce insists on continuing in the vein he started, it will hurt Jason
even more than that. But Bruce has a plan, and the only reason he has yet to
implement it is that he's unsure of his ability to maintain control over
himself. "I think he'll jump at the chance to fight beside me."
Alfred doesn't say anything, merely giving Bruce a look that is perfectly
polite, perfectly blank. He's thinking and feeling things that he knows are
best left unexpressed.
Putting his nose where it doesn't belong is one of Bruce's time-honored
traditions. "You don't?"
"I think," Alfred says, standing and collecting himself and the tea set, "that
it will be far more difficult than you imagine to distract him."
"Bruce," Jason whines, high and needy, and heat curls in his belly, driven by
his hand masturbating himself in an uneven rhythm and the mental image of Bruce
behind him, pressing Jason to the tile wall. Two fingers inside of him,
working, as Jason fingers himself as well. The rhythm of his fingers is much
more even. "Fuck, Bruce, I--need you ins--"
Shutting down the connection at this moment is more painful than Bruce thought
it would be. Jason is learning, and dangerously fast; he needs a new target to
set his sights on.
Alfred's expression means that he didn't miss the way Bruce lost himself for a
moment.
Bruce closes his eyes, sighs. Opens them again. He isn't imagining it will be
all that easy to distract Jason, honestly. He merely knows that Jason is a boy
with an overactive mind who's never had anything to apply it to beyond keeping
himself alive, and he would very much like to give Jason the chance for
something more.
"I would be--" "Bru-uu-ccce" "--honored if--" "Oh fuck" "--you would consent--
" "Please" "--to begin showing--" "fuck, fuck" "--him the basics." Jason
finishes with a scream, which echoes slightly off of the tiles. Bruce does not
reach down to adjust himself, pays no attention at all to the ache in his
scrotum.
"Beginning this afternoon, sir?" Alfred knows Bruce has planned to be home this
afternoon, training himself. It's a change from yesterday; he spent all of
yesterday at WE and half of the night at a party, maintaining his reputation as
Bruce Wayne.
"In the morning," Bruce says. "You may tell him and begin training in the
morning."
As Alfred leaves, and now that Jason has finished, Bruce checks in on him.
Jason's just soaping himself up, buzzing with pleasure and enjoying the almost
scalding heat of the water.
Jason lifts his head, ready to respond, but Bruce only allows himself a
flicker. No more, no less.
And when Bruce begins training Jason two more days hence, his control will be
even better than it is now.
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