Archive of Our Own ^beta

Tim isn’t expecting Jason to come back from his solo run with a new piece of jewellery.

He’s expecting blood, maybe bruises. Some kind of injury, probably, and Jason’s usual swaggering defiance. Not a silver hoop glinting in the cartilage of his left ear like a goddamn weapon.

Tim stares.

Jason tosses his helmet onto the counter, rakes his hand through his hair, and stretches like it’s any normal night. “You eat?”

Tim says nothing.

Jason turns. “Earth to Replacement.”

“You got your ear pierced,” Tim blurts.

Jason pauses. Then smirks. “Yup.”

“You—just—got it pierced?”

“Had to lie low for a few hours in Blüdhaven while the heat cooled off. There was a tattoo parlour with an old piercer who owed me a favour. Figured, why not?”

“Why not,” Tim repeats blankly.

Jason wanders into the kitchen, opens the fridge, and pulls out a bottle of water like he didn’t just shatter Tim’s ability to function. He drinks half of it, leans against the counter, and quirks an eyebrow.

Tim’s still staring.

Jason grins. “You’re checking me out.”

Tim scowls. “I’m not.”

Jason strolls closer. “You totally are. It's the earring, isn’t it? I knew it would work.”

“Work?” Tim says, voice climbing. “Work for what?”

Jason shrugs. “Well, I thought it made me look hot. Clearly, I was right.”

“God,” Tim mutters, rubbing his face. “You’re insufferable.”

Jason hums, stepping into Tim’s space. “You are blushing.”

“Shut up.”

“I could get more.”

Tim’s head snaps up. “More what?”

“Piercings,” Jason says casually, tapping his ear. “Maybe the other side. Or like, eyebrow, maybe.”

Tim chokes.

Jason laughs. “There it is.”

“You’re doing this on purpose.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Jason says innocently, which is impressive considering how absolutely not innocent he looks with that earring, the sharp jawline, and the lazy, lopsided grin.

“You’re awful,” Tim says, backing up. “You can’t just—weaponise jewellery.”

Jason winks. “Wanna get one too? We could match.”

“No,” Tim says far too quickly. “Absolutely not.”

“Why not?” Jason follows him, lounging dramatically on the couch and patting the cushion beside him. “Afraid you’ll look hot?”

“I already look hot,” Tim snaps before he can stop himself. Then flushes and sits across from Jason, just to be safe.

Jason is grinning like he’s won the lottery.

Two days later, Tim catches himself Googling “single hoop earring bisexuality” and immediately closes the tab with disgust.

He’s a grown man. He’s a trained detective. He’s been tortured, kidnapped, and once spent a weekend in space with a telepathic alien who tried to merge their souls. He can handle Jason Todd’s stupidly attractive ear piercing.

Probably.

He’s handling it just fine until they’re on patrol together and Jason’s hair gets pushed back by the wind. The earring catches the light from a passing streetlamp, and Tim nearly drives his grappling line into a window.

“You okay?” Jason asks over comms, amusement clear in his voice.

“I’m fine,” Tim grits out, clinging to a gargoyle and cursing everything.

Jason chuckles. “You sure sound fine.”

The teasing gets worse.

Jason starts casually tugging on the hoop when Tim’s looking. Fiddling with it during stakeouts. Twisting it between two fingers when he’s thinking, or chewing the edge of his glove as he gazes out over rooftops like some model in a noir comic.

Tim is losing his mind.

“Okay,” Jason says one night, stretching luxuriously while Tim tries not to scream. “I’m gonna do it.”

Tim blinks. “Do what?”

Jason gestures to his face. “Eyebrow. I’m getting it pierced.”

Tim stares. “You’re joking.”

Jason grins. “Dead serious. Maybe even a barbell or something. Think it’d look good?”

“No,” Tim says immediately. Then, “I mean yes. I mean—why would you do that to me?”

Jason raises an eyebrow—the unpierced one. “To you?”

Tim groans and buries his face in his hands. “I said that out loud, didn’t I?”

Jason’s voice drops, rough and amused. “You’ve got it so bad.”

“You’re an asshole.”

“An asshole with a great sense of aesthetics,” Jason says smugly. “But hey, if it really bothers you, you could get one too. Solidarity.”

“I am not getting pierced just because you look like a bisexual disaster and I have unresolved feelings about it.”

Jason cackles. “Oh my god. Say that again, slower.”

Tim throws a pillow at him.

But the idea sticks.

It’s in his head while he’s shaving, when he’s brushing his hair, when he catches his own reflection in windows. Would he look good with an earring? Would it make him feel a little braver, a little bolder? Would Jason like it?

Which is stupid, because Jason already likes him. Maybe not in the way Tim wants, but—there’s something there. The kind of something that makes Jason show up at 3 am with takeout and patch Tim up without complaint. That makes him roll his eyes but sit next to Tim every single time they debrief. That makes him flirt like it’s breathing but always check his tone when Tim’s actually rattled.

It’s dangerous, the way Jason makes him feel.

The earring is just a spark. The rest was already there, dry kindling waiting to catch.

A week later, they’re on another patrol together, and Tim says, casually, “I think I might do it.”

Jason turns. “Do what?”

Tim clears his throat. “Get the piercing.”

Jason blinks. Then grins. “No shit?”

“Yeah,” Tim says, trying not to sound like he’s admitting a crush. “I mean—it’d look cool. Right?”

Jason’s smile softens. “It would look amazing.”

Tim stares at him.

Jason doesn’t look away. “I mean it.”

There’s a long, charged pause.

Tim licks his lips. “Okay. Fine. I’ll do it. But if I regret it, I’m blaming you.”

Jason steps in closer. “I’ll take the blame. Happily.”

They’re too close. Jason’s earring catches the moonlight again, and Tim wonders—what if I just kissed him? Would he pull away? Or would he lean in?

Jason’s eyes flick to Tim’s mouth.

Tim’s heart stutters.

Then a loud bang goes off two rooftops over, and they both spring into action, the moment lost.

They go together.

It’s late, and the parlour is only open because Jason knows a guy. The piercer is gruff but efficient, and Jason looms protectively at Tim’s side the whole time.

“Relax,” Jason says, watching Tim settle into the chair. “Worst case, it looks so hot we both pass out.”

Tim snorts. “You’re awful.”

Jason’s voice drops. “You’re beautiful.”

Tim freezes.

Jason smiles, gentle this time. “Just saying.”

When it’s done, Tim checks the mirror. It’s just a small black stud for now, clean and simple. His ear’s a little red, but he doesn’t hate it. In fact—

Jason leans over his shoulder to see. “God. You’re in trouble now.”

Tim meets his eyes in the mirror. “Why?”

“Because now I’m gonna have to resist the urge to stare at you all day.”

Tim flushes.

Jason just smiles and walks out like he didn’t just drop a bomb.

It becomes a thing.

Jason comments on it constantly.

“You really pull it off.”

“Didn’t know the ‘sexy tech nerd with an edge’ look was my kink, but here we are.”

“You sure you’re not doing this to seduce me? Because it’s working.”

Tim rolls his eyes, but privately, it makes him glow.

He also starts noticing Jason’s eyebrow more.

Specifically, how perfect it would look with a piercing. The sharp arch. The way it twitches when Jason’s amused. The fact that Tim already wants to kiss him and that would just enhance the suffering.

“You’d look hot with one,” Tim blurts one night during a stakeout.

Jason blinks. “What?”

Tim stares at the rooftop across from them. “Eyebrow. Piercing. You’d pull it off.”

Jason grins slowly. “Is that your professional opinion?”

“Shut up.”

Jason leans closer. “Is this one of those things where you’re trying to manifest it? Think if you say it enough, I’ll go do it?”

“Would you?”

Jason raises an eyebrow. “If you’re asking me to.”

Tim turns his head. Meets his eyes. “I’m not not asking.”

Jason’s smile fades into something softer. “Then maybe I will.”

Tim feels like he can’t breathe.

The eyebrow piercing comes a week later.

Jason shows up at Tim’s apartment at midnight, leans in the doorway with one hand in his jacket pocket, and says, “You wanted trouble? You got it.”

Tim looks up from his laptop.

And stops breathing.

Because there it is—a short, gleaming barbell resting perfectly in Jason’s right brow. Clean, sharp, lethal. The hoop in his ear is still there, but now the balance is ruined in the best way, and Jason looks like he just stepped out of a fever dream.

Tim makes a strangled sound.

Jason laughs. “That good, huh?”

Tim walks up, grabs his shirt, and kisses him.

No preamble. No warning.

Jason freezes for half a second. Then melts into it, kissing back hard. His hands find Tim’s waist, pulling him close, and Tim fists his hands in Jason’s jacket like it’s the only thing anchoring him to the ground.

When they break apart, Jason’s breathing hard.

“So,” he murmurs, forehead pressed to Tim’s. “That a yes to the eyebrow ring?”

Tim laughs breathlessly. “It’s a yes to a lot of things.”

Jason pulls back just far enough to look at him. “Yeah?”

Tim nods. “Yeah.”

Jason leans in again, and this time it’s slower—sweeter. The piercings glint in the soft light, and Tim thinks God help me, I’m so in love with you.

Jason pulls him in close and whispers, “Good. Because now I’ve got some ideas for matching nose rings.”

Tim groans. “I hate you.”

Jason laughs against his mouth. “No, you don’t.”

Tim sighs. “No. I really, really don’t.”