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“We meet again.” Stephanie dramatically said as she entered the kitchen entrance.
Jason was midway to eating his bagel but decided to put it down in order to give her attention and amuse her sudden entrance.
“To the place,” she gestured a full 180-arc above her head for emphasis. “Where our friendship was born.”
Jason scoffed good-naturedly at her, and he was glad he didn’t bite the bagel otherwise he would’ve choked. It was true, they did start getting closer during that time she helped him ice his arm after arm flex-off day. “Ah yes, the kitchen.”
“Not just a kitchen,” she held her hand. “But the glorious kitchen of the magnificent Wayne Manor.”
She’s not wrong. The kitchen itself is spacious and well-kept. Alfred made sure that it’s always immaculately clean (and has already ingrained in everyone that they should always pick up after themselves and clean the area whenever they have solo snack times). The insides of the cupboards are always organized and the same goes for the fridge. And even after all these years, the wood is still in pristine condition.
Still, Jason grinned and shook his head at her antics. He crossed his arms, his bagel now neglected as he leaned against the counter to face her. Grinning he asked, “What’s gotten into you today, blondie? Ivy’s sex pollen finally got ditched back to last week and now she’s got plants to gas you with thespian fever.”
“That is so oddly specific,” Stephanie chuckled at the thought he blurted out. “And no . I’m kind of just feeling the theater thing. I’m thinking that it might be interesting to audition, for fun and all that. Plus extra credit.”
“That’s cool.” Jason genuinely told her. “I say go for it.”
“You think I might get a part?”
He took a quick second to think about it. Stephanie exaggerates a bit, but with practice and coaching and those acting workshops – Jason is convinced that Stephanie will be good.
“I mean it is college. I’m pretty sure you won’t land the role of Tree 1 .” He joked.
She punched his arm, “You jerkkk.”
“Kidding, kidding,” he laughed. “You’re a little extra but I think it depends on the role you’re going for. Besides, they always give you prep on this type of thing with acting workshops.”
Stephanie’s content with his answer and nodded in approval. She reached out for the bagel behind him and took another one for herself. Taking the knife and cream cheese, she spread the cream cheese on both bagels. After she was finished with one, she gave it to Jason.
“So whatcha doin’ here?” Steph asked as she took a bite on her snack.
“Heard Bruce got a gala tonight,” he answered. “Figured I could snatch the plus one, I’m feeling extra generous tonight to troll on him.”
Stephanie suddenly remembered what Cass and Tim shared with her before.
“Didn’t you vaguely and relentlessly ask people about your ‘death situation’ and make ‘em pick a side.” It’s not a question, she got the insider information from his siblings after all, but Stephanie wouldn’t mind an actual confirmation.
“The man needs a reminder every now and then,” Jason took another bite on his bagel. “Keeps him humble.”
“Oh my god,” Steph shook her head in amusement, her shoulders shaking as she laughed. “You’re never gonna let it go, huh?”
“Not until my second dying breath, blondie.” Jason raised his arm to the side and bowed.
Steph smirked at the gesture, noting his posture and the right amounts of dramatic-ness (that’s not really a word) he inserted in each word. “I should probably take notes from you rather than those acting workshops.”
“I’m not a professional but I am also not cheap,” Jason teased her. “But I can cash you in with a lot of IOUs.”
She waved off her hand, “Pass for now.”
The pair took a few minutes to finish up the remaining of their bagel and did a quick cleaning of their space.
“But on the topic of Bruce’s gala and plus ones,” Jason spoke up. “Guess who ended up coming with him tonight?”
Stephanie racked her brain on who was available tonight to be able to have time to go to a gala that usually lasts the whole night.
She tried with the easiest one. “Is it Dick again?”
“Nope.”
Maybe it’s someone Bruce hasn’t taken for a while but still within the family circle, Steph thought. “Kate?”
“Try again.”
Babs is on eternal monitor duty, Damian is busy with reviewing for his entrance exams on school (not that he needed it but Alfred still insisted the boy), Duke is in a study group to review for his test tomorrow, while Tim and Cass are currently on patrol.
“This is hard,” Steph pouted. “I give up.”
“You sure?” Jason wiggled his eyebrows, tempting her to take another guess.
The blonde giggled, “Just tell me so I know which poor soul had to endure Bruce tonight.” That’s kind of a lie, all of them are menaces to Bruce in galas (each of them in their own ‘special’ way) but he should have known them enough by now so that’s kind of his fault to invite them in the first place.
Jason has a smug smile now. “It’s Alfred.”
“Oh my god,” Steph covered her mouth with her hands to hide the wide smile on her face. “ Bruce is the poor soul tonight.”
“You got that right. Dick said that Babs gets to listen to the whole thing, and when Alfred feels generous enough, he slips in extra childhood stories. More and more older ladies are approaching him to get a piece of those, and it’s giving Babs so much blackmail material right now.”
Stephanie clutched on her chest. “Bless Alfred’s soul for being on our side.”
Jason moved to the fridge and took two cans of soda. He handed Steph one and opened his own. “Moving on from that, have you ever gone to a gala with Bruce before?” he asked out of curiosity.
“He suggested taking me once,” Steph took a gulp of her drink and continued. “I laughed at his face cause just… why ,” she made a disapproving face, “so it’s a good thing he never asked again.”
“Good question: why? It’s prime time to humiliate Bruce with all those snobby and rich Gothamites. And he only has himself to blame for inviting you.”
Steph clicked her tongue and crossed her arms. She tapped her foot for a bit and whipped her head to give him a serious stare. “If I tell you, you better promise not to let anyone else know.”
Jason lifted a brow in confusion, but still promised.
Steph’s nose scrunched a little bit in distaste as she let out her admission. “I have nothing to wear.”
Jason paused at her confession.
“You know Bruce would pay for what you need, right?” he stated as if it’s supposed to be obvious to her. “You’re doing him a favor by accompanying him, and money ain’t an issue.”
Stephanie let out an ehhhh . “But it won’t feel right to me.”
“I beg to differ. You thought I would have brought you a leather jacket that one time.” Jason teased her, remembering the Black Canary merch from a couple weeks ago, which granted him a playful punch from the blonde.
“But this is a different situation.” She whined.
“And also, if that’s the case,” she points an accusing finger at him, “then how come you don’t dress up well for the galas.”
“Blondie, I promise I’ll be his plus one,” he gently lowered her pointing finger. “But that doesn’t mean I’m gonna torture myself in a tux for him. I’m going how I wanna go.”
“I guess you got a point there.” Steph mumbled.
“Besides,” she trailed off, “fancy dresses and galas wouldn’t feel like they’d be my scene. You know?”
He knows. And he feels the same way. That’s why he does the bare minimum with his appearances when he accompanies Bruce to a gala. Jason doesn’t care if his casual attire makes him stick out like a sore thumb. However, a mental image of Stephanie wearing a rather flattering gown slithered its way in his head. And that’s something Jason wouldn’t mind seeing in real life.
Jason sighed wistfully. “But I bet you’d look good in that scene.”
And that made Stephanie laugh. Feeling much lighter from her insecurity of being unable to buy a nice dress fit for such a high-class event.
Money has always been tight for her and her mom ever since she was young. But things have always worked out one way or another. Steph hasn’t relied on anyone before and she won’t rely on anyone now. And she knows what Jason meant about Bruce not hesitating on buying her stuff for the gala. A free classy dress sounds nice, but a free classy dress from Bruce? That’s a very foreign concept for her. The man never even brought her anything before and starting off with such an expensive gown just doesn’t feel right for her. So for now, it’s a pass. But if one day he gets her something less pricey out of the kindness of his heart, she might feel a teensy bit better accepting an expensive gown from him.
“I forgot to ask,” Steph shooed her thoughts and focused back on the present. “Since Bruce ended up with Alfred, why are you still around the manor now that your trolling opportunity is gone?”
“Forgot to restock my fridge so I figured I might as well get a free dinner while I’m here.”
Steph hummed in acknowledgement. The bagel is probably just a starter. She knows that Jason is one of the few people Alfred trusts in the kitchen, he’s likely to cook up something more filling for the stomach later.
She’s a bit uncomfortable to directly ask, and now it’s her turn to be curious. “I don’t wanna go on a possibly touchy subject,” Jason quirked a questioning brow. “But it’s much more convenient for you to stay here. Why not just move into the manor?”
“I can ask you the same thing.” He countered.
“Still got my mom,” she reasoned. “Can’t leave her like that.”
Dang. She got a legitimate reason, and technically a better reason than his. “It’s your turn to give a straight answer.” She reminded him.
She’s giving him an expectant look now and he doesn’t really want to answer but she was fair enough to give a genuine answer and-
“I like being on my own.” He half-lied.
Admittedly the answer was more out of impulse than something he thought of for a long time. Because no one really bothered to know his reasons. But Jason does like the safety of his solitude, and he gets that from living on his own. He’s grateful with Alfred’s cooking and natural bullshit detector (which surprisingly helped him a lot more than he’ll admit even if he got in a lot of trouble when he was younger) but Bruce is a whole different story. A part of him just can’t find it in himself to ever warm up to the idea of living in the same house as him.
He's doing his best, but there are still remnants of anger and disappointment for the things Bruce never did for him. Jason’s sure that the lingering bitterness won’t be going away soon. So, for now, he’ll keep a safe distance.
Jason returned his gaze at Steph, now noticing that she has a sad expression on her face. Her lower lip is jutted out a bit – a cute, little frown taking place. He’s not sure if wants it to stay or not so he directed his eyes on hers. Noting she’s staring down at the floor, he’s glad there’s no pity in them. But there’s a pang of guilt at the melancholy he’s seeing.
“It must get lonely though.” She suddenly spoke out.
He’s not bothered by that factor. Jason shrugged nonchalantly, “Sometimes.”
Steph still has the cute, little sad frown. And oh he doesn’t know how much longer he can keep it together so he attempted to assure her with an honest admission. “But it’s not so lonely anymore.”
The blonde suddenly raised her head and looked at him. Really look at him.
Jason shouldn’t feel so affected but no one really took the time to know what he felt with his current living situation. If he was being honest, it was really difficult at the start. Even when he lived at the streets for a time, there were some rats and stray dogs that kept him company. When he moved to the manor, Bruce’s room is not too far from his and Alfred is always attentive to him. With his time in the League of Assassins, even if he wasn’t close with his fellow trainees in Nanda Parbat, the knowledge that he’s not alone in the barracks brought him a strange sense of comfort. In those times, he was never alone .
He had to get used to being on his own when he went back to Gotham. For the first few months, he never slept on his bed. He takes his comforter, blanket, and pillow to his leaving room and puts them on the floor. He sleeps on the floor to try and convince himself that it’s like back in the Nanda Parbat barracks. Instead of the other rooms only having his weapons or equipment, it has his fellow trainees sleeping in them.
If his memory serves him right, he still does that. Sleeping on the floor. But for the past couple of weeks, he was able to sleep on his bed easier without the crushing weight of the fact that he’s all alone. Not so oddly enough, he pinpoints that it was around the time that he started to invite Stephanie over after two weeks (or so) of being friends with her.
Oh wow, he quietly thought. Roy would be jealous if he found out she got in quicker than he did.
“Alright,” Steph mumbled. “But know that you can invite me over if you want extra company. Like asides from extra training and all. You do let me come over when I feel lonely when my mom can’t make it home.”
She rambles about how she’s seven-out-of-ten times down for impromptu visits and apologizes about how she can’t invite him over to her house. Reasoning that he might give her mother a heart attack. Not because of being he’s him (if that made sense) but the typical ‘my daughter invited a boy over’ (without my permission and at such a late time too).
Something in him twists about her caring so much. To show that she cares so openly, her concern unfiltered and raw in her eyes. And without walking on eggshells while she’s at it. Dick and Bruce have been like that with him after coming back, Alfred never wants to offend so he keeps himself at a respectable distance until he shows signs that he wants to seek out the older man, Babs doesn’t really have a reason to try and reach out, and Cass and Duke are slowly trying to make it up to him now that they’re part of the family. It was all awkward and involves a lot of need to be careful to not ‘step on the wrong foot’. He has earned the ‘lone wolf’ title in the family for a reason, and he has never admitted about the assumption bothering him sometimes – but no one has offered to keep him company before.
He rubbed the nape of his neck, the tip of his ears getting all warm and feeling shy now. And it made Steph stop.
With a smug smile, Steph poked at him. “You’re going tomato mode on me.”
Oh she did not just steal that from me , Jason thought. “Don’t use that term, blondie.” He’s fondly remembering their first genuine interaction. “That’s from my vocabulary. You stick with the word ‘blushing’ like everyone else.”
The blonde playfully let out an aha as she pointed at him. “So you don’t deny that you’re blushing right now.”
He shook his head but didn’t correct her (he did make an effort to try and stop blushing). Just letting her bask around the fact and listening to her go on about how they can even make a schedule for her visits if he prefers it that way. Like a weekly ‘sleepover’. He finds it embarrassing and endearing at the same time – and he’s not sure if he should flat-out decline her offer before she gets ahead of herself.
Or maybe, he’ll go along with what Steph has planned and allow himself to have this one good thing.