Chapter Text
Jason had decided that the human wasn’t trying to hurt him for now. who knows what it would think in an hour, or maybe tomorrow. At least for now he could relax, somewhat. There wasn’t much relaxing one can do with a human sitting across from them but the thought is what counts. Still the human didn’t seem agitated. Besides ripping up the thin cloth it didn’t really do anything to show signs of aggression. Though Jason wouldn’t take his chances on accidentally upsetting it.
With his gaze locked onto the metal floor Jason allowed himself to take a breather. Of course not breathing too deep or too loud in case it triggered the human. His hurt leg was still laid out straight, now as he thought about it, it made him nervous. What if it was too far out? But surely the human would make its displeasure known. Jason stared at his hurt foot, anger rushed into him. How could he be so weak? Letting something like a broken bone slow him down. He knew he was being unreasonable, that it wasn’t his fault, but still, in that moment he loathed himself.
With a silent snarl, Jason bit his lip. Letting the feeling of the numb skin settle him. His uninjured leg kicked the thin fabric, He had no time to think of himself, to go into an inner conflict. Instead Jason had to focus all of his attention on getting out of this cell.
Maybe he could somehow bond with the human, turn it into a teammate, or well more realistically an attack pet. Then after he was free he could ship it down back to the planet the humans stem from. How exactly do you go about befriending a human? Or any animal for that matter. As much as he liked them Jason never had the need to tame different species. So he really didn’t know how. Would you offer them food? Maybe? Jason didn’t have food to really give it but maybe he could offer it something else.
His eyes trailed up from his leg towards the human, the other half of the fabric seemed to be laid across its lap. Maybe it would want some of his clothes? Jason let his eyes wander to the human's face. Its jaw was tense and its blue eyes were boring into Jason. With a surprised gasp Jason turned to look at the surrounding cell. The wall was now extremely interesting. The human chuffed at his sudden movements and Jason stilled. Thankfully it didn’t make another sound or came over to finish Jason off.
Studying the wall led Jason to an unexpected surprise, three claw marks scratched into the metal wall. Along with some odd signals. The human must have realized what Jason was looking at because it started to chatter a mile a minute. It seemed to say the same thing, the noise it made sounding almost identical. it repeating itself.. Jason turned his attention towards the human hesitantly, it paused for a moment and was sure he accidentally offended it. But then it started saying something, before repeating the same.. Sound? Word? Bark? Whatever it was, it definitely wanted Jason to understand.
With a lot of thought Jason decided he wanted to try to talk to it. His voice, cracky with under use, finally managed to say a simple word, “hello,” he said.
The human’s eyes must have exploded with how wide they were. It almost made Jason laugh, that look was usually found on a kit, not a known killer. Though all Jason said was a simple greeting the human started barking a mile a minute. But it must have noticed Jason’s flinch because it froze shortly after. With a last glance it turned its attention away from Jason.
He was thankful for the small mercy. If that thing kept looking at him Jason would surely do something he would later come to regret. So having its eyes look away from him would surely calm him down enough to have rational thought.
Fortunately, or maybe not, Jason’s fight or flight was slowing down. Bringing a headache, a whole bunch of nerves, and an overwhelming exhaustion. He was so tired, every bone in body was slowing down, the pitter-patter of his heart was getting back on pace, and it was getting harder to keep his eyes from drooping. Maybe it was a small mercy, he could properly grasp his current situation. Or maybe it would lead to his death.
With a flutter his eyes closed shut. Jason swore it was only for a moment, he just needed to stop the blaring pain that consumed his thoughts.
A loud wet noise sounded and Jason’s eyes snapped open and he surveyed the cell, landing on the human leaning over and coughing. Jason let himself be small in hopes it wouldn’t notice him, of course that backfired. Curling up against himself made the countless bruises littered about his body flare up in protest. He almost yelped, but somehow Jason managed to hold back
His eyes slowly drooped again, letting the exhaustion consume him. He thought briefly of his teammates, on how they were doing without him. Again a loud banging noise came from the human. His fur stood upright, his body tense. The human looked at him with an almost calculating expression. A shiver ran through his body and he tried his best to keep some resemblance of being warm.
Silence followed shortly after and Jason tried his best to close his eyes and rest. Unfortunately, for the third time a loud noise made itself known, the peeling of metal, or something. Obnoxious and loud, Jason opened his eyes again. The human wasn’t looking at him, instead focusing all of its attention to the part of the wall it was just ripping off. The vigilante stared at the blatant show of strength. He would be annoyed at the constant wake up calls if not for the threatening behavior this human was obviously showing.
So Jason tried his best to pay attention to other things. Unfortunately for him, there isn’t much to pay attention to in a small cell. Except for maybe studying his cellmate Jason had nothing really to do.
He was a weak creature, his eyes kept going towards the cloth and back towards the metal floor. The cell was freezing and he was really regretting his choice to kick it away, but he couldn’t go crawling back towards it. His leg would kill him. Still he stared longingly at the dark piece of fabric. Suddenly the human started barking again. Not exactly threatening, well he couldn’t tell the difference but it didn’t sound so mean.
For some reason his body was losing its edge as the human talked. Some part of his brain just wanted to rest so he closed his eyes for the fourth time. Hoping he could actually regain some energy from whenever his jailers come back.
Darkness was a strong relief, the human had stopped banging on the metal walls a while ago, and Jason was finally able to get some shut eye. When he first growled at it he was so sure that it would get mad and finally finish him off. Well it didn’t, the fact he could think and feel told him enough. Speaking of it felt like something was touching him. Something warm but rough.
Maybe it was Dick? Jason almost smiled at the thought. What if it was Dick running his fingers through his fur. Pulling at the knots Jason got from spending all day laying in the nest.
Though now that he thought about it the feeling was down by his legs. They could just be bandaging his leg but with his mind waking up a little more he noticed a few more odd inconsistencies like that fact Dick didn't have hand pads. What the hell was touching him? Jason’s eyes snapped open with a snarl he turned his attention to whoever was touching him.
All he saw was a tan, muscly wall. Jason shrieked.
Of course that was its plan, wait until he fell asleep to eat him whole. Maybe he would get a quick death? But maybe because Jason was clawing at its backs it would torture him for hours. The vigilante tried to wiggle his way from under it. Jason assumed it wasn’t putting all of its weight onto his body cause he wasn’t squished to death but Jason still couldn’t escape.
How big was the power difference between them? It had to be holding back and yet Jason still couldn’t injure it. Only leaving red lines all over its back that it didn’t even flinch at. Tears prickled at the edge of his eyes. Why was he so weak?
He continued his one sided battle with its back before it barked out an order. Jason froze mid clawing his eyes dilated, Jason let his claws dig into the skin instead. The human barked again before continuing to fiddle with his leg.
A few minutes passed, deathly slow, the only sound was the grunting of the human and the occasional ripping of fabric. Jason was terrified out of his mind. His claws still dug into the human’s skin in the hope it would at least make it bleed. It hasn’t yet growled at him to busy fiddling with his ankle. So Jason dug his claws in deeper.
Without warning his leg flared up in pain, he let out a sharp but curt scream before he even properly realized what just happened. Quickly Jason went back to flailing, pulling his claws that were still deep in the human’s skin down. And oh lord it actually injured the human, Jason would laugh if he wasn’t in such pain. But the human was actually bleeding.
Jason tried his best to put his full attention on the wounds, ripping away at the flesh hoping to make it worse. Man his whole plan to befriend it was off the table. But whatever, he’ll ball.
The human yelped angrily but didn’t move, still focused on his foot. Jason clawed and clawed but it seemed that whatever he did it didn’t care at all. Again the human squeezed his ankle. Jason squealed and squirmed and like a rabid animal, he bit and chewed at its back hoping for a small break.
Finally having enough, the human lifted itself up. Jason quickly took advantage of that, wiggling his body out from under it. Dumbly hurting his already broken ankle, he let out a small cry but sucked it down.
The human stood up tall with its now bleeding back still faced towards him. Fear spiked throughout Jason that thing was tall, bigger than anyone Jason knew. His ears pinned behind his head and he froze. The monster broke its bones again grunting and braking all the while. It slowly turned around its movements small and controlled, Jason felt every muscle in him tense.
Still grunting the human crouched down taking its sweet time, this was it, it was getting into a hunting crouch to finish him off. Without thinking Jason kicked the human as hard as he could, helpless scurrying back when all he managed to do was turn its head.
Weakly he dragged himself towards the corner, the human had stood up again, Jason could see how mad it was. But it didn’t come to finish him off, instead it slumped back to its side.
Jason let out a sigh of disbelief, what the fuck just happened? He turned his attention to assess the damage. His leg hurt like no other and now that he could actually focus on other things besides the human it was really starting to burn. The struggle to get back to his corner left him exhausted, if he knew any better he would probably try and go back to sleep. But the human had already shown that it would harm him if he slept.
With the human gone Jason was suddenly hit with the cold air of the jail cell, in the struggle Jason hadn’t realized how warm the human was. A small part of his brain was yelling at him for fighting it in favor of being pinned but warm. He shut that down quickly though, the human was about to eat him!
Taking a look at his ankle Jason noticed the thin fabric was wrapped around it. Tightly at that, now properly, noticing it, Jason felt the pressure it brought. Why was the human doing that? It didn’t make sense, instead of ripping off his leg it wrapped it tightly. Maybe it was some sort of eating ritual. Or something. Well if that was the case Jason wasn’t going to let the human complete it.
He’d stay awake watching it closely, yes that’s what he’ll do.