Wasn't intended to be slashy, but take it however you like to see these two.

Takes place just months after Bruce brought Jason home.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Bruce gave a soft sigh as he pulled himself out of sleep, cracking his right eye to peer over at the quivering form tucked into a seemingly impossibly small space up against the headboard.

It was clearly going to be one of those nights, he thought with a grimace and a wrinkle of his brow.

Jason sneaking into his bed was a regular occurrence, something he had come to expect over the past few months since the boy's arrival, but it was the nights such as these, the nights filled with terrors, that gave him the most concern and quite frankly, broke his heart.

Jason had experienced so much in his short life, more than he would likely ever know because Jason just wasn't telling, but he knew enough. Things were not hard to piece together between what the boy HAD offered up, his upbringing, his mother's habits, and just some of the things Jason would say or do… he only wished that there was something he could do, something besides simply putting the kid in costume, besides loving him, besides giving him the best he could offer from then on out.

But nothing could take away the past.

He knew that better than anyone…

With another sigh, heavier than the first, he freed his arm from the cocoon of blankets wrapped around his large form, and reached out to the boy. Jason flinched upon contact even within his turmoil riddled deep sleep, and he acted fast, pulling the child away from the top of the bed and into a deep embrace, tucked against his chest. He curled the blankets closed around them, ran a soothing hand through Jason's raven locks, and held him tight.

It took time, but Jason eventually stilled and calmed, and Bruce was able to drift back off to sleep.

They never talked about these nights in the morning… they were both private people, but Bruce liked to think that they were good for both of them, nights where both of them were free of their mental terrors.