Chapter Text
"They're kinda weird," Donna says, a spoon of strawberry pudding halfway on her lips.
Dick looks over her shoulder to watch the fight scene between Kyle and Jason right in the middle of the cafeteria. Fight was a misinterpretation to say the least, they are there for the real kill. Jason has his hands wrapped around Kyle's necks, the grip not flinching even though he's being repeatedly kicked in the ribs. Yeah, a homicide attempt maybe?
Someone would have interfered by then, but pretty much all the students are used to that drama show. Honestly, nobody gives a shit, which is a pity. How often you get to have lunch with a live performance to entertain you? These guys don't appreciate a good refreshment.
"I don't know about that," Dick comments. "I mean, it's normal for Jay, he's riled up about EVERYTHING. But in Kyle's case…" The aforesaid man managed to land a good punch and turn that grappling match to a wrestling. "Guess you're not so wrong after all."
"Were they like this all the time?" She stares at the said boys while nipping her spoon.
Dick leans his arm on the table and rests his head on his hand as he too watches the scene. It's a good question actually. Were those shitheads like that at all?
"Hell no," Barbara answers for him. "I don't think they even knew about each others existence before this year." She mumbles strange under her lips, which didn't go unnoticed by him.
Yeah, it was strange to say the least. Jason and Kyle were from different majors, rarely sharing the same class, barely associating, mostly because Kyle's best buddy was Guy Gardner, who was in his soccer team and Jason hated that boy to damn hell itself. He's seen his little brother going around teasing Kyle about being a 'Sensitive artist' or even acting like a bully, because Rayner got all the ladies without even trying.
But the problem isn't as simple as Jason thinking someone else is more handsome than him (He would've been wrong anyway, because Dick was the hottest guy around and everyone had given their confirmation at all the proms in a row) it's rather Jason's own competitiveness spirit. He thinks he's doomed to be the number one at everything, and when someone shows up to have better grades, better communication skill, better talent, better anything, that's when Jason makes it his ultimate goal to win. Like being in the same room as Kyle and not ranking higher, personally offends him to his core and roots.
But for all his ambitious, their bickering had never crossed the limit of verbal attacks, which clearly isn't the image they're putting on show right now. It's been going on for a month now. They'd snap at each other and fight shamelessly. One thing he knew for sure, was that it started a month ago.
Which means exactly after Donna Troy, his childhood friend, also current exchanged student, moved in to their high school.
Barbara seems to take note of it as well, alas calling it strange.
"What're they fighting for now?" Donna brought him out of his train of thoughts.
"Chairs apparently," Babs pushes her glasses to her nose, most likely trying to lip-read their arguments.
"That's fucking stupid. There's like, a lot of empty chair around." Donna folds her arms on the table, the boys' behavior seems to be getting on her nerves.
"And it's not their usual spot either," Babs added.
"Maybe this particular one has a good view?" He smirks when Babs turned her head to give him a look, narrowing her eyes at him skeptically.
"No I don't think it's the case." Donna sounds in deep thoughts now, like she was merely thinking out loud subconsciously. He used the opportunity to steal the strawberry pudding she barely touched. And of course Babs had to catch him red handed. He gives a smile and a playful wink at her.
"How so?" He asks quickly.
Donna shrugs and turn to direct her head toward them. "I don't know. The cafeteria's huge, even if there was a certain person sitting around, they could literally stalk them on every spot. It just doesn't make sense."
"They don't make sense to begin with," He rolls his eyes. Jason now had Kyle in a headlock.
"But fucking chairs?" She presses.
"Let me remind you the incidents of yesterday again. You didn't finish your soda and they fought over who got to have it. I quote again, Jason near freaking flipped the table if principal Diana hadn't arrived in time," Babs shrugs while continuing, "Besides, they could be fighting about anything. Not like I know for sure."
"Exactly!" Donna points her spoon forward. "They've been fighting over everything as long as I remember. Yeah, Jason's a bit angry most of the times, but Kyle he…like, it's totally possible, but you wouldn't expect that treatment from such a lovey-dovey artist, but they seem like they're bringing something out of each other."
He knew Donna long enough to know she isn't being judgmental, just stating Kyle's obviously sweet personality.
"A dark side?" Babs suggested.
"To bite each other's head off?" He completed for her.
Donna turned her eyes on the boys, now parted by two ginger head boys, who also happen to be Dick's best buddies. Wally holds Kyle, and Roy holds Jason back.
"No. I think Jason's picking fights because he wants Kyle to notice him." Donna says.
"Oh, no," Babs shakes her head. "No, Donna. You got that look on your face like you're about to do something stupid."
"What? When the hell do I do that?"
"The Vodkas from last week's__."
"It was Wally's fault! He had the guts to challenge me that his delicate stomach was actually stronger than me."
"Clearly, he's the heavy drinker out of the two." Babs says as a matter of fact.
"What the fuck! You guys are underage." Dick gives them both a disapproval stare.
Two pair of unimpressed eyes looks at him, like he just said the silliest thing ever.
"You're one to talk?" Donna accused him, and okay, maybe she's right in a way if you ignored all the hook ups he clearly was supposed to wait till he properly turned eighteen to experience. So, he puts his hands up in surrender. It seems to be good enough as girls saved him from the misery of talking about it.
"Anyway…those two idiots," Donna motions her chin toward them. "They seriously need some help. They're too oblivious to acknowledge something like crush."
Barbara snickers slightly. "Come one, be serious, girl. Clearly, we all know that Jason's crush isn't on Kyle."
Dick kicks her under the table as subtle as he could. Because, yes, Jason's crush definitely isn't on Kyle and he'd kill him if he told Donna about it. Babs sends her green glare at him, which he chooses to ignore for the favor of talking to the girl of subject.
"I'm just saying." Donna says. "I don't know which way they swing. Maybe they just want to befriend each other, but don't know how? For god's sake just look at them."
They turn to do so. Jason and Kyle are drilling their skulls with their dagger glares. Yeah sure, best of friends.
"They're fucking fixated on each other. It's kinda cute."
"Yeah, I get it. Cute boys playing stupid oblivious games around is both hilarious and hot__."
"Hey! Who says they're hot?"
Babs continues utterly ignoring his protest, "but you can't just assume something for your own entertainment."
"It's not like that, I just…hey! Where's my pudding?"
"You'll figure it out," Dick interferes and put an arm around her neck. "You're an observer. Being a Photographer's no joke."
"You're both exaggerating it a bit," Babs says. "If you think too hard on it, you'd make a bigger disaster than them."
And no one dares to say otherwise, as she tends to be right literally all the times.
Donna can't possibly listen to what Miss Isely is talking about. Biology isn't her strongest element, she'd probably be screwed for the next exam if she doesn't start taking notes right away. But she simply can't put her mind on the subject of Photosynthesis (How many fucking times they're supposed to learn that damn process? She swears!) She sees Kori listening with sheer attention to Miss Isely and furiously writing every word that comes out of her mouth on her notebook. Maybe Donna could ask about her notes later.
In front of her, Jason's pretty much focused on the lesson as well, sitting sharp, head coming up and down to write anything he deemed important. His reflection on the window suggests how he calmly has his eyes narrowed on the board.
She wants to snort so bad, because Jason calls Kyle a nerd while he himself scores on the top five students on exams all the times. It's pretty funny, because Jason's probably more of a nerd than any regular student, much less being on the soccer team and the son of a billionaire.
Jason has his goal set and fights for it with relentless endeavor. That explains why he has a drive to be the best at everything, to crush his opponents if it meant winning. Sounds cruel, but he's not the villain in his story. He has his mind and body on the right path to get to his goal, whatever that is, he's determined. He's not what you expect from a rebellious teenage with the reputation of a bad boy. Call him a nerd, call him a loner, call him the best, the worst, he doesn't give a shit. That's gotta be what Donna likes the most about that boy.
She watches Jason highlighting something on his book and leaning back on his chair with a huff, tapping his pen on his book. Since she's Dick's kindergarten friend, she recalls the little Jason more or less. That kid's never been one to sit still for long, he was always moving, wrestling Dick through the whole manor, or trying to ruin their games because Wally wouldn't let him play with them. Sue him, they were a bunch of crazy kids doing questionable stuff like climbing trees and jumping from really high places, they couldn't risk Jason getting hurt. But Dick just loved his new brother too much not to include him, and she found it utterly cute how Jason tried to make friends with Roy, but didn't know how, so he made fun of him constantly to get his attention.
Jason came a long way from that anti-social angry kid, wanting to bite every hand which reached to pat his head. He's still pretty angry on some good days, but he's learned to redirect it. He uses that passion to fight for his goal now.
Even though his brother is the golden boy of the school, he still prefers to keep isolated. As far as she knows, Roy's the only friend he has, and he makes fun of Harper all the times! Some things never change, do they?
Acknowledging things like friendship or crush seems to bruise Jason's pride and that's reason enough for him to cut himself off, which sort of makes sense, in Jason's weird way.
But all the things she knows about that boy contrast his behavior with Kyle. For start, Jason may be cool with not positioning as captain in his soccer team, but in literally all the classes he shares with Kyle, it's not enough that his grades are high, he has to be better than Kyle. Like a third place was a crime if Kyle was the second. Donna is in those classes too, and she would know. It sounds suspicious to say the least. Like, they were trying to make a point, or simply impress someone. Or themselves.
Another thing is that Jason rather die but never accept help from anyone. His ego or dignity, whatever that is, doesn't let him be a normal human being, who admits they need help in a lesson.
Not to flatter herself or anything (Exactly that) but she's quite good when it comes to history (One point for you, wonder girl) Which makes sense if some students come to her for help, and it's all good until Kyle arrives and asks for her assistance. And that's when Jason shows up out of freaking nowhere, and drags her away from him. "I'll put the history book to your thick head till you feel it up your ass, Ion." (Seriously, how adorable was it that Jason had a cute nickname for Kyle?)
To everyone's surprise, Jason actually helped him, but to no one's surprise, did it like he was insulting Kyle.
And another time where she was having trouble with chemistry and somehow the news got to Jason, and as soon as his offer for help was on the table, Kyle shoved his chemist notes to her hands, and pushed Jason aside. It irritates the hell out of her seeing those idiots act like that. They even competed on helping her.
You wanna be a decent human being, or fight like alpha animals claiming mate?
Jason's eyes meets hers on the reflection, and shit, he's staring back.
Donna feels her cheeks flush with embarrassment of being caught. She offers an awkward smile and looks away quickly, grabbing her pen and pretending to gaze over the board. But nope, he's still looking at her with his weird intense eyes. Yeah, his eyes were pretty with dual colors, but also so sharp and cold.
You know those beautiful people you want to stare at all the times, but when they look back you want to look at anything but them, because they make you melt? That's Jason for you. When he was a kid, his chubby cheeks and cute scowl made him appear cute as hell. But now, with a mature face and an aggressive feature, it was…. it wasn't cute anymore.
Jesus, he's still looking at her. At first confused, probably thinking why this weirdo was staring at him like a creep, but then he just stares. She can feel its intensity drilling her skull.
Donna tries. She fucking tries with everything in her ounce not to give in and look back, but fuck, she looks at the reflection in the window again, just a bit. Jason is smirking now, with full confidence and cockiness, but his eyes aren't directed at her anymore. He was looking over her shoulder at someone else in the very back of the class. She brushed a hand on the back of her neck to twist her head around and….
Yep, he's staring at Kyle. Right, of fucking course.
They fight even with their eyes! Jesus, save her or kill her already.
Those idiots fight all the time and no one knows why? Seriously, why? A chair, or a soda, or a chemistry note aren't that important to cause a conflict, but they seem to bicker over everything lately. And it's Donna's ass luck that she has to bear with every single of them.
Let's see, what are their problems? Daddy issues? Check both. Reserved? Check both. Competitive? Check both. Odd sense of humor? Check Kyle. Anger issues? Check Jason. She hasn't exactly had a lifetime experience with either of them to figure them out, but as far as she can say, they have more reasons to get along than be each other's enemies.
Who fucking wrestles over finishing someone else's soda? Who in hell even cares?
Jason Todd and Kyle Rayner apparently.
Donna overheard Jason had won Kyle's spot on the soccer team with his good performance, but Kyle doesn't strike her as someone to hold grudge on something like that. Besides, he has his art skills which wouldn't exactly be efficient in the field.
Jason keeps sneaking glances at Kyle, daring him to look back. Slowly, he tears a paper out of his notebook, crumples it and throw it at Rayner's way when Miss Isley had her back to the class. The paper ball flies across the class and hit Kyle's head. Kyle looks up and glares when Jason's eyes caught his.
They fight so much it wouldn't surprise her that they reached the level of enjoying it. Like those idiots with crush who bullied the guy they liked for attention and…
….Wait.
"Oh," Donna says. "Oh, shit."