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Roy nearly falls, tripping over a new quiver. He kicks it under his bed carelessly. Oliver, or possibly Dinah, probably got that for him to cheer him up, but they're going to be disapointed: he doesn't think anything could cheer him up. What worked when he was twelve, upset about trivial things like a failed english test, wasn't going to work for a 22 year old suffering the worst heartbreak of his life.
He might never be happy again.
He wants to be left alone in his misery, but Dinah and Ollie don't seem to get the message. Even as he refuses to talk to them, only leaving his room in the middle of the night to stock up on junk food, the gifts keep appearing. Ollie even had the gall to ask him why he was still upset. As if the stupid gifts they keep leaving could fix things. At least his friends don't live in the same area, dodging them is as easy as turning of his phone.
Aside from moping, Roy spends his time tinkering on the newest version of his robots. It's just distracting enough to keep his mind of things for a bit, before his thoughts inevitably drift back to Jason, and he acidentally sets fire to his workshop.
He can't even practice archery anymore, because that too, reminds him to much of Jason.
————
People always assumed that Jason and Roy met at a gala, because their families move in the same social circle, where elbow rubbing and fake concern for the lower classes is required. Or maybe that Dick introduced them, since he was both one of Roy's closest friends, and Jason's brother. But by the time Jason had been adopted and started attending galas, Roy was already only sparsely attending, before being banned by his therapist from attending any event with alcohol. They never ran into each other there.
And while Jason and Dick might have warmed up to each other since then, in the beginning, Dick was incredibly jealous. He already had to share his home and his family with an interloper, who his father adopted without even a heads up, he wasn't also going to share his friends. Add to that the fact that Jason was 2 years younger; not enough of a difference for him to be seen as a cute young kid, but enough for him to be seriously uncool. Dick solved that problem by never inviting his friends to hang out at Wayne manor anymore, thus eliminating any chance of them running into each other.
For years, Roy only knew Jason from Dick's stories about his annoyingly nerdy brother, or from the occasional snap shots in society pages of Jason looking utterly uncomfortable at galas.
That changed last year, when he ran into Jason and Damian at an archery competition. He'd heard plenty about Damian before- with every one of his siblings, Dick grew more and more comfortable in his role as big brother, and with the youngest he was utterly over the top, posting family pictures on twitter every week. A stark contrast to the way he'd treated Jason in the beginning, but those two had buried the hatchet over that years ago.
Roy was surprised Dick wasn't the one accompaning Damian, but he was busy with upcoming exams. They struck up a conversation, the topic quickly switching from Dick to their other interests, as well as their shared experiences getting adopted into high class families.
Damian and Roy both ended up winning in their respective age groups, which seemed to annoy Damian to no end, since the trophies for adults are bigger. And he had plenty of time to complain, since Damian and Jason ended up carpooling with Roy after their flight got cancelled.
It was a two day drive, but despite the little gremlin in the back seat, Roy wished it was longer. Jason was beautiful enough that Roy would have been happy just sneaking glances of him while driving, but the Omega turned out to be incredibly sharp witted and having an amazing sense of humor as well. And even better than that; Jason seemed to like him, too.
When it turned out that they both went to the same college, Roy knew it was fate. They had never run into each other before, because the literature and engineering departments are on different ends of the Campus, but when they returned to school Roy always made an effort to go the long way, just so he could see Jason between classes. He wound up being late for half of his own classes, but he didn't care.
With every time Jason laughed, and every time he had to listen to a passionate rant about Jane Austen, and every time Jason ended up falling asleep on his shoulder after a movie night, Roy kept falling in love.
But he knew that with an Omega like that, he had to do things correctly.
It was torture to wait at all, but he knew how important his studies were to Jason, and didn't want to distract, so he waited to court the Omega until summer. He couldn't stop himself from buying everything he thought the Omega might like, in the meantime, storing them in his closet to use as future courting gifts; any scarf that matched his jade green eyes, any classics reprint with a beautiful cover and pretty jewelery that cought Roy's eyes. He couldn't wait to give them to Jason.
On the first day after classes ended, Roy showed up at Wayne manor bright and early, in his best suit, and asked Bruce Wayne for permission to court his son.
Bruce had told him, in no uncertain terms, that that was never, ever, ever going to happen.
Which led to Roy's current heartbreak.
————
A month later, Roy's still inconsolable.
There's a knocking at the door that just won't go away, no matter how much Roy grumbles. When he gets up and yanks the door open, no-one there to yell at. He double checks, just to make sure he isn't crazy, and then he hears a soft laugh and another knock coming from behind him.
Jason Wayne is standing at his window, waving slowly. Roy's pulling him in before he even realizes what he's doing.
"We're on the third storey, how the fuck did you get up here?"
"Oh, Dick taught me some stuff" Jason grins. "It's quite useful"
"If you want to break your neck, sure" staring out his window, Roy still can't fathom anybody climbing up. There are zero good footholds.
Jason comes to stand beside him, leaning against his shoulder. "It's not even that hard. I can give you a demonstration later, but but basically, you take a running start and grab onto that little stone that juts out, from there you pull yourself up and..." The explanation makes it seem even more ludicrous, but Roy can't concentrate on anything other than the warmth of Jason's body, the fact that he's here, when he clearly shouldn't be.
"Why are you here?"
Jason's still smiling when he turns to face Roy, but it's a hesitant, small thing. "You never answered me. And you know, I was driving Ace crazy, trying to get to the mail before him, so I figured I'd just come talk to you." Roy has no idea what Jason's talking about, but the uncertainty in Jason's voice confuses him even more. There was no reason for an Omega as smart, beautiful and kind as Jason to ever be self conscious, especially not around Roy.
The summer had treated Jason nicely- he' gotten a glowing, even tan (not the sunburn Roy inevitably would have gotten if he'd gone outside) and Jason's curls looked happier and softer, too. They must be getting much better care now that Jason didn't have to rush to class in the mornings.
Jason's wearing dark jeans so tight they could be painted on, a simple T-shirt and his signature brown leather jacket- a simple outfit, but it suits him perfectly. It's also what he's wearing in every single one of Roy's wet dreams. Or at the start of them, anyways.
Meanwhile, Roy can't remember when he last showered, and his sweat pants and tank top are both threadbare.
Still, Jason's looking at him shyly, making Roy wish he knew what the question was he should have answered. And whatever answer would make Jason the happiest.
"Oh" Jason says, a sad, dejected sound. Roy follows his gaze, until his eyes land on the quiver, laying in the dust under his bed. The Omega strides over and picks it up, before reaching inside and pulling out an envelope. It says "to Roy William Harper" in Jason's slanted cursive. "You didn't even open it"
"I didn't see the letter. I thought it was a gift from Dinah and Ollie. To cheer me up"
"No", Jason says, handing the quiver to Roy, "It's a courting gift. From me. For you." Really looking at it, Roy can't believe he thought Ollie could have picked it out. The quiver is beautiful, made out of red leather etched with an intricate design. Roy doesn't have to try it on to see that it would fit perfectly.
"But, Bruce said..."
"Bruce said you're not allowed to court me. He didn't say anything about me courting you."
"Because that's not how it works." Alphas court Omegas, not the other way around.
"It could be, though. I already got your pack Omega's permission."
"So the other gifts were also from you" Roy asked, wincing. He'd treated them as badly as the quiver, despite them all being thoughtful and just the things he liked. "I'm sorry I didn't realize that."
"It's okay", Jason smiled, looking sheepish. "Does that mean you accept my offer of courtship?"
"Of course"