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“You ever stop to think that if it weren’t for the whole superhero business,” Jason says, “we would never have met at all?”
It’s a lazy Sunday morning, with the snow falling outside and winter slowly melting away, and they’re in bed, cocooned in blankets and tangled in each other, have been for the last couple hours. If anyone told Jason this could be even a possibility, that one day he could wake up and stay in bed, be happy with someone he’s in love with, five years ago, Jason would’ve laughed and laughed, then picked up his gun and shot them in the face.
“Are you kidding me? Seriously, Jaybird? The way I see it, pick any universe. There’s a hell of a lot of ‘em out there, and I’ll tell ya what,” Roy pushes himself off the pillow, resting on his elbow and looking a mess of ginger hair and mischievous eyes, “you and me? Inevitable.”
“Oh yeah?” Jason laughs, pretends his heart doesn’t stutter, “even without Red Hood and Arsenal?”
“Dude, come on,” he rolls his eyes, “think about it. You’d still be Bruce Wayne’s son. I’d still be Oliver Queen’s son. There’s literally no way we wouldn’t meet at some point.”
“At some gala?” Jason scrunches his nose, “I used to hate those.”
“Same,” says Roy, settling himself back in the mattress, “but nah. Oliver never attended them. Maybe at Q-Core. Yeah, I can see it. Shush, now, I’m gonna tell you a story better than any of your books.”
“Better than Shakespeare?”
“So much better. It’s the amazing story of us,” he says, letting Jason curl at his side, “okay, so. The first time we meet, we’re still dumb teenagers. It’s summer, and Q-Core and Wayne industries are working on something together, one of those save-the-world projects, really important shit, because Bruce comes himself to Star City to talk with Oliver. And he drags you along, because even though school is out, it’s your sophomore year and you need to start thinking of college applications and business experience will look good on those. You complain the whole plane ride, whining about how you hate Star City and how you don’t need to worry about college anyway, because you’re the best of your class, a proper prodigy, you know? But the board meeting is terribly dull, just a bunch of old white dudes talking over one another, and you’re bored out of your mind, so the first chance you get, you slip out and go wandering off.”
“And what about you?”
“Me? Well, it’s my senior year, and I definitely need to start thinking about college, so Oliver puts me in one of his old labs and calls it summer internship. I spend the days holed up in there and coming up with the craziest things. Until one day, this kid shows up, says he’s visiting in some school trip, but I can tell he’s full of shit, ‘cause no one goes to a field trip in button ups and dress shoes. But he doesn’t give me shit for the state of my lab or the holes in my jeans, so I let him stay.” Roy grins, begins stroking Jason’s hair, “so, we talk, and I try to impress you with my inventions, and you refuse to be impressed. We stay in my lab all afternoon, tinkering and bickering and talking, until Oliver and Bruce burst in. They’ve been looking for you for hours and been this close to calling the police. But before you go, somehow, I get one last miracle, and you give me your number.”
Jason closes his eyes, lets his voice wash over him, painting a picture behind his eyelids. All the world, confined within these walls.
“But that’s not how we get together, not yet, anyway. I need to get my shit together first. So, I go to college, probably some engineering major, and I fuck it up royally. Too much parties, too much free booze. Get kicked out-”
“ Roy-”
“Shh, I’m the one telling this story. Right, okay, so I flunk out in my second year and Oliver gets super mad. He yells and threatens to cut me off, we fight all the time, I refuse to see what’s really going on.” He clears his throat, “but in the meantime, you are on your way to some ivy league university, majoring in English Literature like you always said you would. Bruce was a little miffed another bird refused to follow the family business, but let’s face it, he was just happy you weren’t gonna drop out like Dick. Anyway, we’re not talking that much anymore at this point, you have finals and I sleep until the sun’s already setting, we kinda drift apart. Not the same crowds, you know?”
“Good thing at least Replacement took a liking to business.” Jason cuts in, trying to imagine how the batlings would come together in a world without the Bat, “Cass would be a ballerina, playing at that fancy russian company. Demon Brat I can see either as a veterinarian or a zoo keeper, to be honest.”
“Hey, I’m the narrator here!”
“Call it a spin-off.”
“Anyway, where were we? Right. After a while I do get my shit together. Go to rehab. AA, where there’s this weird buff guy named Waylon who accepts to be my sponsor even when I’m a little shit to him. I go back to college. Engineering again, but with a minor in physics. And hey, Jaybird, are you ready? This is the best part,” Roy smiles, voice softening at the edges, “this is how one day I’m at the library looking for a book for a class that I kind of hate but go to anyway, and I look to the side, and then. And then there you are, sitting at a table, lotsa books around. And I don’t know how but I get the courage to go talk to you. And honest, it’s the best fucking decision I ever made. I get to know you, listen to your 2am ramblings on the merits of Great Gatsby and the american dream-”
“I thought you weren’t listening-”
“Dude. Come on. I always listen to you. But as I was saying, I get to know you and god, Jaybird, how could I not fall in love? Really. It’s almost like Fate, but so much better. And do you wanna know the ending?”
Jason pushes himself up and quickly rolls over, stradling Roy. He grins down at his boyfriend, “I think I have a pretty good guess.” Jason kisses him. He doesn’t say I love you as often as Roy does, but he leaves a rosary of hickeys along his collarbone and moans his name like a prayer. Jason doesn’t say your touch is engraved in my bones to the marrow or you fill the cracks in my soul with gold, or I love you until it hurts, until it breaks, until it heals. There’s a lot he doesn’t say, but he hopes Roy knows, hopes he reads it in between his breaths and in the tugging of his heartstrings and in the curve of his smiles.
They’re content to stay in bed for as long as they can, but suddenly the tell-tale noise of a plane touching down on the roof fills the room.
Crap.
“You said they were gone for the weekend!” Jason accuses, rushing to zip his jeans, “they won’t come back until like, monday, you said.”
“What, that’s what they told me!” Roy half shrieks as he looks for his shirt, “I was a little busy trying to convince six superheroes that I was too sick to go with ‘em!”
“The fuck is my shirt,” he curses, but voices are approaching fast, so there’s no time, “ crap. I’m going through the window.”
“Or, you could, you know. Stay . And we tell them the truth.”
Jason isn't the best at dealing with feelings and shit, but even he knows the insecurity hiding behind the suggestion, so he sighs, crossing the room in quick strides, and kisses him senseless. “Roy. I love you. I just wanted to give us a little peace for a little longer.”
“I know, I love you too, and I understand,” he presses a quick kiss to his mouth before adding, “now go, they’re gonna be kicking down the door anytime.”
Jason is halfway through the window when the door is thrown open and the Titans pour in the room.
So much for peace.
“Crap.” Jason’s still frozen, one leg inside and the other dangling by the firescape. “ Crap. ”
“ Lilith said there was someone else here Roy are you- Jason?” Dick stops mid babbling, eyes taking in the scene. “What’s going on- where’s your shirt?”
“Uh. Hey, Dickiebird!” He aims for casual, fails spectacularly, “eh, now that you mention it, I have no id-”
“Is it that one on the ceiling?” A buff guy, who he guesses must be Garth, points to the fan above.
“What? Oh, that’s where it went. Damn, you guys are really good at solving mysteries.” Jason swings his other leg, lands in the firescape, “well, great to see you, until never, hopefully-”
“ Wait - Little Wing!” Dick, living up to his name once more, says, and Jason can see Wally snickering while Roy repeats it half delighted, half incredulous. “Tell me what’s going on here-”
That’s the wrong thing to say with the wrong tone of voice, and Jason bristles. He sees Roy edging closer to him, subtly trying to get between them, but before he can start telling Dick exactly where he can shove his orders, Wally interrupts, “Dick, come on. I think it’s pretty clear, I mean. He’s not wearing a shirt .”
They can see the exact moment understanding clicks in his brain and a horrified look crosses his brother’s face as he winces away from the bed. “ What? How- since when ?”
Roy looks at him. Jason nods. “Two months and a half? Give or take a few days?”
Karen and Donna move to congratulate Roy, telling him how cute they look together and you have to tell us everything, come on , while Lilith offers them an apologetic smile as Garth starts planning increasingly complex double dates.
It’s all a bit too much.
Specially when Dick starts making that stupid puppy-eyed face, complaining, “and you didn’t tell me, Jay? All this time, why ?”
“It’s not like it’s any of your business, Dickhead.” Wally glares. Jason sighs, relents. “Fine. It’s not like we told anyone else. I have Tim and Steph sworn to secrecy.”
Roy is sending him increasingly desperate looks, silently asking for help, as the girls are joined by Garth in grilling him for information. Jason almost feels bad, but this is his team, he’s on his own dealing with them.
“ What? Tim and Steph know?”
“Well, have you tried lying to Cass? It’s impossible! And whatever she knows, th-”
“ Cass knows too?” Dick wails, “am I the last one to know?”
“I mean. I haven’t told Bruce, but he probs has some sort of surveillance on me so.”
“Ooh, I also ran into Damian last time we were in Gotham. He tried to blackmail me into buying him ice cream before dinner,” Roy calls from the bed, where he’s been cornered, “so he must know too.”
“I can’t believe this.” Dick flails. Wally catches him before he falls. Dick flails some more. “My little brother gets his first serious boyfriend, and he doesn’t even tell me. ”
The loud voices fill the room, and Jason can see from where he’s leaning in the windowsill Roy laughing with his friends. It’s nice; he looks happy and carefree, and Jason can’t bring himself to regret this morning-
Dick suddenly shrieks again, voice raising above the noise.
-even if some people were testing his patience.
“I don’t know who I’m supposed to be threatening!” He cries, “Roy’s one of my best friends, but Jason’s my little brother!”
Jason says nothing, choosing to stay out of it. Roy looks a little pale, slowly backing away towards the window.
“Maybe both of them?” Wally suggests.
Jason starts fiddling with the window lock.
“Or none of them,” Lilith, the voice of reason and probably his favorite Titan right now, tries.
Roy finally gets there, a look of relief on his face.
“No, I’m with Wally on this, I think Dick should give them both the shovel talk. It’s the only way.” Karen says like she’s solving a math problem.
They’re both in the firescape now, and all the lunatics are too busy arguing over each other to notice it. Jason closes the window quietly, gesturing for Roy to run.
The last thing he hears before taking off is Dick crying out again.
“Okay, you were right, what the fuck,” Roy laughs hysterically, once they ducked inside the first diner they found. “Why are they like this, oh my god.”
“Hey, it’s not your fault, I’ve heard Dick fell on his head a lot as a child.” Jason waits a minute before adding, “and we still have to officially have dinner at the Mansion. Alfred insists.”
Roy pales. The menu he’s been holding drops back on the table. A look of horror crosses his face. “ Why. I thought you loved me- Jaybird, why .”
“Now that the Big Bird knows, Alfred will insist. But don’t worry, swords, katanas, guns, batarangs, the batcow, tasers, ceremonial knives and live karps have all been banished from the table.” Jason grins, “you’ll be fine.”
There’s dull thud as Roy let’s his head hit the table.
“And hey,” Jason pokes him, “remember when you asked how the story ends?”
A grunt of acknowledgement.
“Well, it doesn’t.”
*
fin