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Jason followed Batman out of the bathroom and into the sprawling nestroom they’d come through. Batman—Bruce, Jason was supposed to call him Bruce—still smelled nice and gentle, and he’d been so careful teasing the tangles out of Jason’s hair, but Jason’s throat still closed up so tight he could hardly breathe when Bruce laid a giant hand on Jason’s back and led him to the nest on the other side of the room.
The nest didn’t smell like sex or arousal—he knew exactly what those smelled like, and he didn’t smell so much as a stale alpha scent—but that didn’t mean that Batman wasn’t really good at controlling his scent, and it didn’t mean that Batman wouldn’t change his mind and decide that Jason was too pretty to pass up.
“Come here, pup,” Bruce chuffed, rubbing his hand up to gently rub the back of Jason’s neck.
Jason shuddered and leaned into Bruce involuntarily. The near-scruffing felt so good, releasing just enough submission hormones to set Jason’s instincts at ease without completely overwhelming him. He didn’t need to fight. His pack was there to protect him, and they would keep him safe.
Jason panicked struggled against the light euphoria, but all he managed was a yawn. He was so tired, but he couldn’t give up—
Bruce rubbed a bit more firmly, and Jason yawned again and stuttered a purr. Why was he fighting again? Bruce was so nice. Besides, Bruce would probably want to get Jason tested for all kinds of bad touch diseases before he fucked Jason anyway, if that was what he wanted, so he was probably safe for the night. Besides, Bruce’s scent was so heavy with gentle motherly affection that it hurt, so he probably didn’t even want to hurt Jason.
Jason didn’t have muscles anymore because Bruce had melted them, and he might have said that out loud, because Bruce chuckled and picked Jason up like a baby. He rocked Jason once, twice, then kissed his forehead and set him in the middle of a nest.
Jason gasped when he hit the softest blankets in the world and kept going. He thought he was going to fall forever, because the mattress was so soft, but then he stopped falling.
Everything was soft and warm and smelled of Bruce. Of Jason’s new…
Jason’s brain was a bit fuzzy from being night scruffed, but there was no way to read what Bruce had done, picking him off the street, scenting and cuddling him, bathing him and taking him to his nest…that was a pack claim. That was a parental claim.
Batman wanted to be his dam.
Jason curled up into a tight little ball. He could smell his own milk and honey omega pup scent spiked with sleepy apprehension and more hope than was safe. Bruce would be able to smell it too, and he might be mad at Jason for being scared when Bruce was just trying to be nice. He might throw Jason back out onto the street, or he might just kick Jason out of his nest and make him sleep on the floor.
A thin keen trembled in the air, and it took Jason a moment to realize that it was coming from him. He wanted to go home, but he didn’t even know what that meant anymore.
The bed shifted as Bruce climbed into the nest. Jason flinched, waiting for the blow to fall, but Batman’s heavy fists were nowhere to be found. Bruce’s fingers instead combed through the wet strands of Jason’s hair, slow and gentle. After several strokes, Bruce wrapped his other arm around Jason’s waist and pulled him back up against Bruce’s chest. Despite all his muscles and the violence he wreaked on bad guys in Gotham every night, Batman was…soft. Kind.
“Shh, puppy,” Bruce hushed. “You’re safe now. I protect my pack.”
Pack. It wasn’t just Jason being stupid and hopeful, then. Bruce really wanted Jason even though Jason was a bad kid who stole tires and a dumb kid who couldn’t even get away with it. Jason was a bad guy. Batman should have beaten Jason up in the alley and left him for whatever alpha caught his scent and found him later. Not…not what he’d done for Jason. Jason didn’t deserve it at all.
Jason whimpered and bared his throat in submission. He didn’t deserve it, he wasn’t good, but he could be good. He really could. He didn’t like to steal; he was just hungry all the time, and he was cold, and he just wanted to be a tiny bit safer, but if Batman fed him and kept him in his giant warm house, then Jason would never do anything bad ever again. He promised.
Bruce leaned forward, and Jason braced himself for a hard pinch or teeth digging in and shaking till they drew blood, but Bruce just lightly nipped the side of Jason’s neck and kissed where he’d bitten. Then the hand in Jason’s hair nudged his head forward until his chin was tilted defensively over his throat.
It was too much.
Jason burst into tears and rolled to nuzzle into Bruce’s neck where the scent of mother-devotion-kind-protective was so strong and honest to a point where it couldn’t be lying even though he couldn’t be telling the truth either. It didn’t make any sense.
“I won’t hurt you, Jason.” Bruce scratched loose circles into Jason’s scalp, heedless of Jason’s cries. “Go to sleep, puppy. You are so safe here, and you will be safe here for the rest of your life. Always and forever, I promise.”
Jason couldn’t believe it was true, but he couldn’t doubt it either. Bruce was too gentle, too kind and self-sacrificing for nothing more than a raggedy street rat who wasn’t worth the duct tape holding his shoes together, so kind that he couldn’t be lying. If he’d been trying to groom Jason to being a willing little pup mate, his scent and lust would have given him away, but there was just motherly love no matter how many times Jason gasped it down.
Here, in his mother’s nest, he was home.