Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Roy hummed to himself as he followed his phone's directions towards the nearest cafe to where the Titans had holed up for the week. Normally he'd complain about being sent on the coffee run, but sometimes he needed a little breathing room from his new-old team. Don't get him wrong, he loved all of his friends fiercely and was glad to work with them again–he just hadn't been working with so many people at once in a while. There were a lot of strong personalities bouncing off of each other, and he really did not know how the Justice League managed it. The Titans at least had the benefit of all those years working together in their youth.

Still, the team had only been back together for a couple months, and he'd spent the better part of the last four years with just Jason and Kori, which was a very different experience. They were a lot less chaotic outside of missions, and a lot more domestic since they didn’t have to worry too much about responsibilities outside of the team.

It was something like a year since Kory had left for space princess stuff, and almost four months since Jason walked out on their partnership and disappeared himself. It still stung, the way he'd left. At the time Roy had felt like something had been building between them and then suddenly Jason started pulling away. It had all come to a head after he'd been captured and injured on that last job. Roy knew it wasn't the cause, but it was Jason’s excuse.

Honestly? Roy was kind of pissed off about it. He and Kori had let Jason "lead" their team-up because they understood that he needed some kind agency to escape the Bat's shadow and forge his own identity – Dick had needed it once, too – but there was an understanding that they were all equal partners in it. Supposed to be, at least.

It had taken weeks for Roy to be in any condition to try and hunt Jason down afterwards. His partner owed him some real answers about why he left that wasn’t locked down behind emotionally charged stonewalling, but… He was just gone. Jason’s skills to disappear off the apparent face of the earth had come in handy none-too-few times in the past, but it was really fucking annoying when Roy was the one looking. The only reason he wasn’t more panicked about the whole thing is that, eventually, he’d finally heard from Nightwing that he was on some kind of long-term undercover op under Oracle’s purview. That meant that she was the only one who knew where he was, and she wasn’t about to offer up anything to compromise an ongoing operation like that. Roy didn’t like it, but he could wait.

In the meanwhile, he had the Titans.

The Sunny Shots Coffee Shop seemed like it was nearly all window from outside, but the interior was surprisingly less blinding than it suggested. It had a warm atmosphere and, interestingly, a Superman mural on one of the side walls. It was popular enough, but not too crowded for the time of day: couple college kids taking advantage of the charging ports and free wifi, salarymen grabbing something on their lunch, some older gentlemen near the door that’d taken up people watching, and a smattering of others on a pit stop before tackling the rest of their day. Roy’s eyes skittered across the broad shoulders of a man dressed like some overgrown newsie in a sweater vest that was intensely focused on his phone before flicking back to the artificially cheery barista taking orders at the head of the line.

“Harper!” He heard called out from the pick up counter, startling him to attention. His name wasn’t exactly an uncommon one, but he couldn’t help the reflexive glance over as the newsie strode over and flirted with the barista handing him his tray of drinks. The woman behind the counter laughed, rolling her eyes at the tip he shoved in her hand with a mischievous quirk to his grin. A quirk that stirred something in Roy’s memory, and, when the man finally turned towards the door and Roy got a complete look at him, he realized why.

You see, one of the things you learn about Dick Grayson when you’ve known him long enough is that he’s always in a paradoxical state of hoarding his belongings while also seeming to constantly replace his stuff. He has things from all the way back in his circus days like the poster of his parents, but he seems to have a new phone nearly every other week. Nowadays he compensates for the replacements by having the data constantly backed up on Oracle’s servers so he can just restore it to each new device, but several years back when that kind of thing wasn’t possible without a physical connection, Dick had spent days pulling his broken phone open and replacing parts while it was hooked up to his battered laptop until he could salvage everything off of it.

These days the story is told with lighthearted teasing or brought up in his defense when someone underestimated his abilities. The part that none of the other Titans ever share is why Dick was so desperate to get anything off of the totalled device in the first place. On that phone was the only copy of a picture where Dick stood side-by-side with a younger boy at a marina-side carnival. The kid’s arm was stretched as high as it could go, just a few inches too short and entirely too far to the side to successfully give his elder brother the bunny ears he was holding up.

Jason’s smile had quirked just the same at 14 as it did at 24. Roy's breath caught in the moments it took for Jason to spot him, the grin sliding off his face as he froze in shock. Roy tried not to think about the fact that he’d never seen Jason that effortlessly happy the entire time they had worked together, or how hard he and Kori used to work to pry every smile they managed to get out of him.

He watched Jason work his jaw for a moment before seeming to find the words to speak and trailing off again. “Roy? You-...”

Roy swallowed, clearing his throat to reply. “Hey,” he said, voice a lot weaker than he’d imagined it would be once he worked up the nerve. “You’re looking pretty good there, Jaybird.”

“I-... uh.” If things were different, Roy would have found it pretty funny to watch Jason stutter, but the cornered glance he saw thrown around the cafe soured something in Roy’s gut. It was a reminder that Jason had been avoiding him. Before he could comment on it though, he watched Jason draw in a deep, steadying breath and gestured with his head towards the line, which had moved forward while Roy was distracted. Instead of leaving though, Jason strode over to wait in step with Roy without making eye contact. “Thank you,” he finally said. “You… also look good. How… How’s your team thing working out?”

Awkward small talk was… Fine, Roy guessed. The place was too public for anything else, even if he wasn’t too happy about setting aside all the things that he felt suffocating in his chest. “Working,” he answered tersely, the effort it took to keep his voice steady metering his words. “Everyone needed a boost for our current project, so, now I’m here.”

“Big project?” Jason asks, sounding strained. His hands flex around the paper tray of drinks. “I mean, are you guys gonna be in town for a while?”

“Hoping to get rid of me so soon?” Roy bites out.

Jason flinches. “That’s not- fuck, I wasn’t…” He lets out a frustrated breath, gnawing his lip. It was a nostalgic tic, like Jason had taken the term “chewing on your words” a bit too literally when he was stressed. It had always been kind of cute, right up until the third time Roy saw him bite straight through his lip. Now, it just worried him.

Jason didn’t figure out what he wanted to say before the door opened behind them and a faintly annoyed Lois Lane walked purposefully towards him, “There you are, Spellcheck, what the hell’s taking you- oh.” She pauses, clever eyes darting between the two of them before she grins. “Roy, it’s good to see you again. It has been some time, hasn’t it?”

Roy grinned back, the expression spreading with surprising ease. “Oh, just a bit. A few years, give or take. You’re looking as shrewd as ever.”

“And you’re just as smart-mouthed. Tell me, are you gonna be in town long?”

Aaand there goes his good mood. Lois had more history with Jason and the other Bats than him, so it made sense that she’d be on his side. That didn’t mean it wasn’t just one more little wound. “Just a few days, then I’ll be out of your-”

“Good to hear,” Lois cuts him off. “You got any free time while you’re here?”

“That… depends on why you’re asking,” he relents. He was confused, and admittedly a bit upset, and it was wearing his patience out quick.

“Unfortunately,” She stresses the word, sounding genuinely regretful. She taps the badgepass dangling from Jason’s neck. “My intern and I are expected somewhere right now. But, well, I know you two would like to catch up. If you’ve the time, then you guys can text each other to meet up before you go.” Her eyes stray towards Jason, whose face slowly starts to redden under her piercing gaze. “I know Jay’s been meaning to contact you for a while now, and would love to talk. If you're willing to listen.”

Roy’s not sure what expression he was making anymore. It was- huh. He wasn’t expecting any of that. Examining the badge, he saw that Jason had apparently been working for the Planet under the alias “Jaden Harper,” which. That… that was something. He didn’t know what, but it was something. There’s no way it was any less than deliberate. “If Jaybird’s got time for me,” he says, slowly. “Then I can make time for him.”

Lois beams at him, and behind her Roy watches some of the tension slump out of Jason’s body in relief. “I knew you wouldn’t let me down, Harper .” Her eyes glitter when she drawls his name. Mischief looks different on her face than Jason’s, but the expressions complimented each other. Like something kindred between them. Roy figures that’s why Jason’s here, then. “By the way, how’s Dick doing?”

“He’s sleep deprived, as usual.” He’s not sure why she asked the question, it came so out of left field. “Coffee’s not going to help but team policy says we can’t force him to sleep for another six hours, as long as he eats when the rest of us do.”

She laughs, rolling her eyes. “Of course there’s a team policy for that. Based it off mine and his father’s, I assume?”

“Probably.”

“Tell him he needs to visit more often,” her expression’s sharp and teasing. “He misses all the fun stuff.”

“ Aunt Lo ,” Jason hisses, flushed redder than Roy’s ever seen him. His eyes darted back to Roy, face tight with embarrassment. “I’m sorry for her. Just… She is right about me wanting to talk though. If you’re sure that’s okay?”

Harper , he muses. There’s a reason Jason used his name for the alias he started right after walking away. He doesn't know if it’s enough to forgive him… but he’s willing to hear him out. He doesn’t even want to be angry at Jason, really. Even if it’s not enough to get them back to where they were… he’s willing to try.

“When and where, Jaybird. Just let me know when and where.”

Chapter Text

Roy wasn’t sure what he had expected. They were back at Sunny Shots a few days later, Roy having talked his way out of that day's surveillance by saying he needed to make a meeting and letting them come to their own conclusions about what "meeting" meant. And, well, depending on how things went it might not even end up a lie. Apparently the coffeeshop had two conference rooms that patrons could reserve for business meetings, study groups, or whatever else people needed a quiet room within a five minute walk of specialty coffee drinks and overpriced goodies to accompany them.

Not that he could really say much. Jason had talked him into trying their s'mores latte with some graham cracker coffee cake while ordering something called a copper cream mocha and chai snickerdoodle. The guy taking orders wrote ‘Harper’ on the cups without bothering to ask their names and gave Jason a mischievous grin. Lois had recommended they do their talk here as ‘neutral territory’, but Roy didn’t think anywhere that the employees knew one of them that well could be neutral. It was a good thing he didn’t actually care about that.

The barista at the pickup counter was familiar. Malorie, as her name tag proclaimed, was the same charming woman that had been making drinks a few days before. She folded her arms on the counter after placing the drinks in front of them and gave Jason an unimpressed eyebrow. “Well, Harper? What’s your excuse going to be today?”

“Oh, come on, Mal, you’re not going to make me look bad in front of my friend, are you?” Jason replies without missing a beat.

She hums, drumming her nails on the counter. “Public humiliation? You can do better than that.”

An amused grin flashes across Jason’s face before he schools it into something solemn and pleading, clearing his throat dramatically and holding out the twenty he pulled from his pocket towards her. “Missus Malorie, my good woman: Generosity is the arbiter of fortune, don’t you know? And ‘twould be my utmost fortune to see the young lady’s smile, knowing how I took part in its dawning upon her face.”

“Oh my god,” she breathes out, baldly disbelieving. “How are you- You know what, nevermind. You’re ridiculous.” 

Roy watches a corner of Jason’s mouth quirk up into a triumphant smirk as he waves the bill. “Don’t make me sic the minions on you, Mal. I may not have access to the backroom with your stuff, but they do.”

Malorie sighs, snatching the money from him. “You’re all menaces. I’m telling them you called them minions.”

“They already know. Besides, you’ll thank me later,” Jason intones, handing Roy his order and grabbing his own. “It’s worth it.”

Roy lets Jason lead them out of earshot before he comments, “Seems like you’ve been making friends, Jay.”

“Something like that,” he shrugs. “Friend-ly, at least. We chat, but none of us really know each other outside of our jobs. And, well…” Jason gestures vaguely. His job wasn’t ‘real’, of course. Just an undercover gig.

Once the door to the conference room shut behind them, Jason pulled a device out of the messenger bag he brought and plugged it into a port conveniently built into the wall just above the tabletop. It looked almost like a mini spotlight, if the spotlight were a speaker. Roy can recognize the symbol for a wireless charger on the front of it, where the legs loop together to make a support designed to hold a phone. Which, apparently it was going to. Jason unlocked his and pulled up an app that Roy’s seen Dick fiddling with, and placed it in the gap.

Roy frowns, pushing his lower lip out like a child. “What is that and why don’t I have one?” he complains.

Jason snorts. “Prototype short-range digital soundproofing and transmission interference. Cyborg, O, and Red Robin-slash-Young-Justice have been collaborating on it. Barbie says I’m supposed to be helping test the idiot-proofing on it. If you want to help ‘breaking’ it in, talk to one of them. I think future-boy-Flash is also on the crash team.”

“Oh?” He looks at the setup more critically. He’d pretty much guessed what it was for during setup, but it must be pretty reliable already if Jason’s willing to rely on it here. “Hardware or software?”

“Probably both, but O usually asks me to test user-end performance issues in her programming. Guess I’ve a knack for hitting the weak spots and tearing straight through them.”

It was meant as a joke, Roy was sure, but it hit too close given what they were here to discuss. The line fell flat and an awkward silence filled its place. Roy found himself closing his eyes and taking a deep breath before moving to sit down across from his now ex -partner. “... What happened to us, Jason?”

Jason flinched at the sound of his own name. It seemed like not that long ago that he’d get mad at Roy for his incessant use of nicknames, but now here they were.

Here they were.

Jason pulled a moleskin out of his bag, pocket sized and full of sticky notes marking the pages colorfully. He held it like a lifeline, or an anchor, but didn’t open it before he spoke. “It didn’t have anything to do with you,” he admitted, lips pursed. He pressed the edge of the notebook to the center of his brow, and Roy could see the effort he was putting into to stop himself from biting down when his lip caught between his teeth. “You-... I-... Okay. Okay, I know what you and Kori were doing for me, with the Outlaws. I appreciate it. You guys are probably the only reason I made it this far and not just- not just for having my back in a fight.”

Roy’s gut sank. That wasn’t the kind of opening he wanted to hear. Granted, he doesn’t know what he wanted to hear. ‘I’m sorry, I was an asshole and wrong about what I said, please take me back’? He probably wouldn’t have liked that, either. He wanted it to hurt Jason like it hurt him, he wanted it to be something they could brush under the rug and move on. He wanted it to never happen at all.

(He knew, on some level, that he was never going to like this conversation. But he needed it. At this point, they probably both did.)

“But?” Roy prompts when Jason takes a moment too long to continue.

“ And ,” Jason corrects. “And it meant, means… everything to me that you tried. Are trying. I’m… also trying.” He shoots Roy a wry smile. “I thought if I ignored everything and just went with what you guys were giving me then it would go away. Never really was that lucky. It caught up with me eventually.”

“What, exactly, caught up with you?” Roy hid his expression behind taking a swig of his coffee, resisting the instinct to gag on the sweet-melt of the marshmallow foam.

“The fact that I’m dead,” he said matter-of-factly, then cringed. “Or, actually, I’m supposed to stop saying that. It still feels like it's true, just that everything else hasn't quite gotten the memo yet.”

Fuck. He knew it would come down to that, didn’t he? Roy knew, somewhat, that Jason’s death and resurrection hit him harder than some of the other heroes that had gone through similar things. He’d done his best to pull Jason out when he could tell his thoughts strayed too close to the grave, but there was only so much he could do. The worst part, he knew, was the lack of closure. Not Joker being alive, not the fact that more kids turned up at the manor, just… proof of something. The second Robin’s legacy was part cautionary tale, part disjointed pedestal, and part silent haunting: Nothing that fit the boy that crawled out of his grave, and nothing that matched who he was before he was buried in it either.

Roy hadn't wanted to push—Jason was sensitive on the best of days. He also hadn't thought it had gotten as bad as it must have. Everything's clearer in hindsight, as they say.

"So, you came up with that whole speech you gave me and left."

Jason nods, unable to look him in the eye. "You wanted to save them," he says.

'You wanted to save me,' Roy hears.

"It would have killed you."

Roy Harper has survived worse things than Jason Todd. He's pretty sure that he would have survived even if Jason hadn't left when he did. If he… well. Roy wouldn't have stood by and watched Jason self-destruct. Maybe these were the best terms for them to have separated. He can easily picture the fights they'd have gotten into once Roy figured out what was going on, and how stubborn the response would be to suggesting that Jason needed help. Jason would have gotten a lot meaner if he had been given the chance.

"Pretty sure that's my choice to make."

"Yeah," Jason agrees. "But it was my choice not to live, or die, with you on my conscience. I heard through the grapevine that Dickie'd been talking to the other Titans again, and I figured it was only a matter of time before he got around to you. As long as I could hold out until that, then it wouldn't be too bad."

Honestly, Roy wasn't sure whether or not that was the most inaccurate statement he'd ever heard. The Titans had practically imploded not too long after Jason's death the first time and, while it hadn't been the cause of their fallout, he knows it sure didn't help. They'd barely even known Jason, back then. He found himself resisting the urge to bite out a comment that Malorie was right, actually, when she called Jason ridiculous.

"Alright," Roy said finally. "So, you decide to lie low until quote-unquote 'reality' catches up to you and puts you back in the ground, and somehow convince Oracle to give you an undercover gig until then?"

Jason makes a face, the heat of embarrassment spreading across his face. "Actually, that's just the excuse we came up with because I didn't want to deal with anyone right away." He pauses. "I'm benched."

"You let the Bat bench you?" Roy balked. Last he checked, they weren't even on speaking terms since he'd left Gotham.

"Oh, hell no," Jason exclaimed. " Lois benched me."

"Huh." Yeah, he could see that happening. Roy had definitely had to earn his place with Jason, but Kori’d had a much easier time from pretty early on. He was just more prone to trusting women easier than anyone else. "So, she talked you into this."

Jason nods. "She's not an award-winning journalist for nothing. Her and Babs tracked me to where I was holing up and made me sit down and listen to what she had to say. I guess I really wanted to believe what she told me. 'S still a work in progress, but I'm here. Even trying to apologize to you like I plan on sticking around."

"Do you?" Roy asked. Something desperate constricted in his chest. "I won't do this again, Jaybird."

A smile flickered across Jason's expression. "My original agreement with Lois was three months. After that… I think I should probably stay on the bench for a while longer, to be honest. I just don't know if I'll do it here or not. I haven't decided yet." He didn't look comfortable with the words, but Roy knew he meant them. They were probably one of the hardest things for any of the capes to admit.

"Promise me," Roy pressed because while his heart was ever a traitor to his best interests, he couldn't just act like he hadn’t been hurt. "Promise me you won't leave me high and dry like that again. I don't care if you never set foot on the field again, Jay, but I need to know that you'll tell me the truth next time instead of finding excuses."

"I promise," is the answer Roy gets, but it's the easy grin that sells the fact that he means it.

Chapter Text

“You know,” Lois mused aloud, startling Roy from his reverie as he waited in the back of Sunny Shot’s line. He turned to meet her glittering eyes and amused smirk. “Somehow I knew it was you.”

Roy raised an eyebrow at her. He hadn’t seen Lois since that first day. It had been a bit since he’d met with Jason for their little heart to heart and it had been… “nice”, he supposed, since then. The bitter ache in his chest tried to say otherwise, but he pushed it aside. It was a familiar pain of missing out on something that maybe, almost could-have-been. It wouldn’t be the first time he fell harder for someone else than they fell for him. He could be a big boy about it if it meant keeping Jason as a friend. 

“What’d I do?” He asked.

She returned the eyebrow with a pointed look of her own. It was a rather imposing look. “When my intern said that he didn’t need anything from the coffee run and he was, and I quote, ‘already covered’ I knew it had to be you. Even without the face he was making.”

“Oh, and what face was he making?”

“His Roy-face, obviously.” She snickered at the expression that must have crossed his own,rolling her eyes. “Oh, don’t look so scared. It’s a good face, Harper.”

“Sure,” he says, distracted and embarrassed. For a moment he swore she must have seen right through him.  You see, he and Jason had been texting regularly since their last conversation. Light stuff. He was caught up on all of the Planet’s current office gossip, and he’d shared the Titan’s shenanigans and foibles since their reinstatement in turn. The Titans who had decided that Sunny Shots was to be their go-to coffee stop and realized rather quickly that Roy had seemingly somehow gained the favor of its staff and was given extra candy-coated espresso beans atop the specialty drinks compared to when any of the others made runs. Thus, he was their sacrificial gopher in the name of their own personal caffeine gain.

He couldn’t blame them. He’d do the same to any one of them if the situation were reversed.

Roy didn’t usually run into Jason or Lois often when he made coffee runs. It hadn’t even occurred to him whether or not he wanted to until one of the other baristas - Marcel, with the colorful beaded hair braids - leaned over the counter and informed him that the Planet had a routine schedule for when they came to get drinks. The grave delivery of this knowledge was at odds with the grin that slowly spread across his face afterwards, and the amused wink. He probably should have tried to dissuade whatever it was the guy thought was happening… but, well, he didn't have much of a leg to stand on about it given that he promptly filed the information away with plans to actually use it.

Long term missions with a team like the Titans, who often split their time between vigilantism and other responsibilities, meant organizing things around schedules in an odd parody of shift work. When Roy found his free time lining up with the Planet’s coffee run (or, more accurately, when he persuaded Donna to switch with him to do so) he’d made a point to message Jason with an invitation - or offer, should he be too tied up in his work to come himself. It worked, of course, which brought him here.

He found himself sort of wishing the shop wasn’t so busy. There were still a good eight or so people ahead of them, and, even if it was pointless since they’d both end up at the Planet, he kind of wanted to run from the conversation he could feel was coming.

“You know,” he replied, mimicking Lois’s earlier tone. “I didn’t think Pulitzer prize-winning Lois Lane normally made the office coffee runs. Don’t interns usually do that?”

She grinned back at him with teeth. “Oh, sure they do. But sometimes a gal just needs to stretch her legs and makes an exception.”

“Or, you just wanted to talk to me,” Roy guesses. “About Jay.”

“Less that I wanted to talk to you and more that I wanted to give you a chance to talk.”

“Ohh, the infamous Lois Lane interrogation tactics?” He cracked a grin of his own. “Pulling out all the stops, huh?”

“Think what you want, kid. I know you haven’t told a soul about running into him-” Roy feels a flash of guilt, remembering her request to tell Dick to visit. He hadn’t wanted to involve bat-drama before he’d had a chance to work things out with Jason on his own, and then he’d forgotten afterwards. “-even if it is the worst kept secret around. It’s not an easy situation, and just I wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

“Wait,” Roy says abruptly. “What do you mean ‘worst kept secret’?” It had been kept well enough that he hadn’t managed to find him when intentionally looking.

“Well, Damian and Jon have frequent playdates,” Lois listed off. “Cass visited a month and a half ago and has been dragging Steph along for weekly coffee-slash-tea. There was an incident a few weeks back with Tim’s team. Then, of course, Bruce’s visits are suspiciously timed to never cross with when Jay’s with me.” She smirks. “And since Alfred and Babs helped me set this up, I’m pretty sure Dick’s the only one that doesn’t know.”

“He misses all the fun stuff,” He recites, stunned. “... I haven’t told him yet.”

Lois snorts, laughing. “I know. He would have made time by now if you had. It’s fine, I’m not here to guilt you, you know. I could have just texted him.”

“So, what, you want me to open up about how I’m still kind of angry even knowing the truth? Talk it all out and feel better?” Roy sighs. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate the thought but I’m pretty sure what I need to do is just… Get used to it. My head’ll cool off soon enough.”

“You sure? You don’t have any questions or anything?” Lois asks. “He wrote a list, you know. Of all the things to tell you. And then when he got back he grumbled about how he chickened out and didn’t even talk about nearly half of them.”

Ah, he’d wondered about the notebook. Jason hadn’t opened it the entire time they spoke, even after they’d gotten over the tough stuff and spent the rest of their reservation on idle chatter. “Either he brings them up himself, or I’ll get around to asking when I’m comfortable with whatever answers I’m afraid of.”

“Reasonable,” Lois notes. “So, no questions for me, then? You’re just going to take what you’ve got now? It’s not like I’m going to be spilling any secrets he wouldn’t want you to know or anything he should tell you himself. He’s only one side of the story.”

Roy purses his lips, a thought coming to mind. “I… Might have one I’m not willing to ask in public.”

“We can carpool back to the office, then.” Lois nodded.

With the matter settled, the two fell into something of a comfortable silence until they reached the front of the line. Marcel smirked when he caught sight of Roy, then offered a brief flash of exaggerated sympathy when he looked towards Lois and back. Her amusement beside him was palpable. 

“What’ll it be today, man? The usual, orrrr…” Marcel trails off, the obvious question in the air.

He’s not surprised Marcel is onto him. “A large Hot Date for me, and you know Jaybird’s order better than I do.”

“Of course,” Marcel snorts. “The gingerbread mocha’s been for the ginger this whole time. What else was I expecting?”

“What? It was either that or Unicorn Slayer,” Roy jokes.

Marcel pauses ringing the order up to give him a look. “I do not need to know that kind of information about either of you.”

Roy frowns “Either of-” he cuts off, mouth agape as he suddenly realizes what Marcel was implying. “That’s not what I-”

“Stop harassing our regulars, Marcel,” Malorie comes over to slap the man’s shoulder. “Put his ticket on hold and take Lois’, I’ll pay for his and Harper’s order later.”

Marcel salutes, grinning, “Ma’am, yes ma’am.”

“What-”

Lois laughs, hip-checking Roy to the side. “Sounds like you’ll have to take it up with the pick-up counter, kid.”

Groaning, Roy trudges over to the pickup counter, leaning over it a bit. “Malorie. Mal. Wait, am I allowed to call you Mal or is that a Jaybird thing? I can pay for my own drinks, Malorie.”

Malorie shakes her head from where she's making the drinks. “You can call me Mal, it’s not a cutesy petname like Jaybird.”

“Please don’t call it cutesy to his face, you have no idea how hard it’s been to get him to stop fighting me on that one.”

She shoots him an amused look. “Oh, I can guess. He’s been pretty damned stubborn the whole two months I’ve known him.”

Roy frowns. “Is this about the tips? Because you really don’t have to pay him back. He’s just like that.”

“I’ve noticed,” She responds, dry. “Did he tell you what he’s been tipping me for?”

Well, he’d thought it was flirting the first time, but, in retrospect, this was Jason, and he’s not really the type to flirt using money. Or at all. Being in character for his current alias, then? “I have no idea.”

“My daughter came in with me one day. I wasn’t going to be here long, just helping with some inventory, and Lizzy sat right over there,” she paused her work to gesture over towards a booth near the back, currently occupied by a teenager on their phone. “And Harper takes it upon himself to keep her company, which is fine,” she insists, shooting him a reassuring glance over the machines. “He's good people, but you know that. So she tells him about her upcoming birthday, and how she wants to go mountain biking with my girlfriend but she needs a special bike to do it.”

“Surprised he didn't just flat out buy her a bike, honestly,” Roy admits, hoping to cover up the brief seizure of his heart when she mentioned having a girlfriend. If he'd realized his assumptions had been wrong when she first asked, that sealed the deal. Dealing with those implications were their own bag of trouble.

“I'm sure he would, but Lizzy doesn't want just any bike. There's someone selling a custom Supergirl bike that was willing to work out a deal with me. She showed him the listing. He's been finding excuses to tip me extra ever since.”

He hums sympathetically. “Is he being too much? Jaybird likes to help and he's a sucker for kids, so I know he doesn't mean to be, but…”

“Eh, he didn't make a deal of it until I called him out on it. I have a hard time accepting things like that, but I am grateful. He doesn't seem to like me trying to thank him though, so you're the convenient proxy,” Malorie informs him ruthlessly, assembling drinks into cardboard carriers.

Roy gasps. “Are you calling me the weak link?”

“More like a soft target, I think,” Lois says, finally joining them at the counter. Judging from the paper bag and coffee stirrer in her hands she'd taken a detour by the condiment station.

Mal grins over at Lois. “Pretty much. Anyways, since you're both headed the same way I put his on one of the trays for the rest of yours, hope that's okay.”

“That's perfect, Mal. Good luck with the rush,” Lois agrees, motioning for Roy to take two of the trays and grabbing the last one herself.

“Hey,” Roy calls Lois's attention covertly after they peeled away from the counter. “I don't mind playing pack mule for this, but can I do something really quick before we head out.”

Lois gives a magnanimous wave. “Do what you have to, hotshot.”

He sets the trays down and beeline for the booth that Malorie had pointed out earlier. The teenager ignored him when he knocked on the table next to their bunched-up apron, “Hey, you're one of Jaybird's minions, aren't you?”

She looks up at him then, examining him critically. Her name tag is half-hidden in the fabric, but he can read enough of it to connect her to the name Kaylee, who Jason had mentioned before. And, from the interested way she propped her head on one hand, she seemed to recognize him. “That depends on why you're asking.”

Roy grinned, pulling out some bills from his wallet and sliding them over. “Keep some as a courier fee, but I need you to give Mal a message for me, if you don't mind?”

“... Go on.”

“Tell her ‘twould be folly for me not to aid in the fortune of my dearest boon companion. There is no path that does not lead to the mountains for the young charge.’”

Kaylee's eyes bulge, her shoulders shaking from barely contained laughter. “Oh my god, you two are made for each other,” she gasps out. Snatching the bills, she affects an exaggeratedly posh accent. “‘Twould be my utmost pleasure to assist in this matter, my good sir.”

Roy chuckles back, winking before he turns away. “Thanks, I'll send the word along to make you head minion.”

He hears the girl snort-laughing behind him, Lois watching with amusement. “Should I be worried about you bribing the baristas?”

“Hey, your nephew started it.”

Chapter Text

The thing about Roy and Jason’s relationship is that a lot of people had their thoughts and opinions on it:  Criticisms from some, “observations” from others, and a small handful of genuinely sincere insights. Frankly put, the only one who got it was Kori, and that’s because she was there to see it slowly fall into place. No one else really knew that Roy and Jason were actually very mutually in love with each other. Neither of them said a damn thing about it but Roy knew, and Jason knew, and they both knew the other knew–There was a lot of knowing going on, okay? 

Roy didn’t talk to anyone about it because he knows what they’d say. He’d get a pitying look and some consoling words about the emotional (in)competence of Bats. He doesn’t blame them because honestly? He’d do the same thing in their shoes. It was one thing to hear about it and another to live through it.

Except, one time he’d been tired and cranky from a mission that didn’t go as smoothly as the Titans would have liked and Roy had bitched, just a bit, about missing when the Outlaws would just shoot the fuckers and be done with it. Then, he’d bitched about Bats and disappearing and Dick’s expression turned pinched.

“Being in love with a Bat’s a tough gig,” Dick had remarked, wry.

“It wasn’t just me,” Roy had snapped, unthinking. “I mean, we didn’t-...” He huffed out an exhausted sigh, giving up on the explanation before it started. Like he said, he knew what people would think. But Dick managed to surprise him, just nodding after a moment.

“I think you’ve known me long enough to know that that’s worse.” He sighs. “Hell, it’s probably why he disappeared. We’re not very good at handling these things.”

Roy pursed his lips. He thinks about how everyone had kind of blown up on each other near the end of the team before, and Dick and Kori’s relationship in particular. He thinks about how Kori thought of Dick, even now. The last time he’d spoke to her about him, she’d looked exactly as Dick did now. “You were, though. Mostly. It got complicated near the end there but-”

“But you saw how that turned out,” Dick smiled unhappily. 

It was a form of defeatism that pissed Roy off. Kori didn’t deserve to be written off because of it, Dick didn’t deserve to write himself off, and Roy had no intention of settling for it either. Maybe it would be too much, and maybe once Roy got to him he wouldn’t forgive Jason, but he hadn’t planned for even a second not to try.

Of course, once he found him, and everything else… Roy wouldn’t say it was easier to know that Jason left to keep Roy out of the blast of him self-destructing, and Lois just confirming his own concerns about the whole matter, but the context was at least grounding. He worked a high pressure life and dealt with a lot of upsetting situations, and, while he certainly wasn’t Bat-level obsessive about information, it did help.

It did leave Roy with a new problem, though. He was settled over it all, but what does he do with it now? The Titans were on the verge of ending their case–a final set of surveillance shifts just to make sure their guys didn't flee and then a final bust later that night–and they’d be leaving not long after. Usually they didn't stick around past the next morning if they didn’t have to unless they found some arbitrary reason to stay. Which, they could have one. If Roy told Dick about Jason he’d stay.

But then he’d be telling Dick about Jason, and who knew if he’d have time to talk to him alone until they left again after that. It was stupid, and selfish, and it made Roy feel like a petty child to indulge. Not that that had ever stopped him before.

“You’re thinking awfully hard over there, Speedy.” Donna, the lovely goddess that she was, could also be something of a child, Roy thinks. He could be biased though. Having known her as long as he did, and also her having been his ex… she knew probably too much about him. Her eyes glittered with amusement as she teased him, “Worried about leaving some one behind?”

In the spirit of trying to be a more mature adult, Roy stuck his tongue out at her.

Donna just laughed.

“Oh come on, it’s not like you’ve been subtle about it. You can’t blame me for being the first person to ask.” She smiled innocently at him.

“Were you asking for yourself, or on behalf of the Nosy Busybody Collective?” He shoots back.

Her snort was answer enough. “Does it matter? You know I’m perfectly willing to withhold information from them if you don’t want anyone else to know.”

He did. Donna Troy was the type to be sealed up tighter than Fort Knox when it came to withholding anything she wanted to. Oh, sure, you might know something is there, and she might smile in a way that felt a little like she was taunting you with what she knew, but you’d never hear a peep of it. He’d always found it kind of a pain.

Inevitably, he did cave. Roy knew he could use a soundboard and while Lois was great, she was tied too much to the other end of all of it for him to rely on. “It’s complicated.”

She hums. “Are we talking complicated from the angle of fighting supervillains or civilian complicated?”

Honestly, both of those sounded easier. “Little of column a, little of column b,” He decides.

Donna sat up straighter, deliberately catching his eyes. “Do we need to have another talk about dating supervillains…?”

“It is not about Jade.”

“Hey, you’re the one on first-name basis with her,” Donna points out. “I’m just trying to look out for you.”

“Trust me, it’s-” He cuts off when his phone starts to ring.

Now, there weren’t a lot of people who had the number for Roy’s phone. Most of them could be accounted for pretty easily. The other Titans wouldn’t call him while he’s working because they’re all either resting or working on something of their own. Ollie doesn’t have this number, and Dinah or one of the other arrow kids would just text unless it was urgent. Normally, he’d have slotted Jason into that same behavior pattern.

Something on his face must betray him when he checks the call, because he can hear the mischief in Donna’s voice when she asks him if he was going to answer it. He flips her off and turns away when he puts the phone up to his ear. “It’s me, is everything okay, J-?”

“You didn’t ask,” Jason says, the words rushing out of him in a sudden burst.

Roy frowns, confused. “What do you mean? What didn’t I ask?”

Even though he can’t really hear Jason chewing on his lip over the receiver, he can easily picture it in the silence that followed. He almost prompted Jason again when the other man worked up his nerves first. “Harper,” He bites out, as if somehow that explained everything. Sure, Jason, just say his na- Oh.

Ohhh.

Roy found himself having to swallow his own nerves crawling up his throat. It’s not that he hadn’t thought about it, or wondered. He was just a bit scared of the answer. “Okay,” he says. Psyching himself up. “Okay, Jaybird: why’d you use my last name in your alias for your civilian bench break?” Behind him, he can almost feel Donna realizing what’s going on. He made a point not to look at her.

“Any alias needs to fill its role, suiting both the function of its purpose and the skill level of whoever uses it,” Jason starts to recite.

It was the beginning of a familiar lecture that he’d heard from Dick dozens of times before. He’d learned from his mentors and shared it with his team. Roy found himself wondering if Dick had passed that lesson down to his brother, or if they were both just parroting it from Bruce and Alfred. 

“Minimal contact aliases for things like property, unsecured communication, or the occasional financial account can be any name you’ll remember or can document safely for access. Short-term undercover aliases can be anything you can consciously respond to when actively focusing on the role. Long term…” Jason pauses. “Long term aliases need to be names that you can respond to unconsciously. Jaden, for example, sounds similar enough to my name to mishear and still react when it’s called.”

“Harper doesn’t sound anything like the names you’re used to, though,” Roy finds himself saying.

“It doesn’t,” Jason agrees. And, hell, Roy wishes this wasn’t a conversation they were having on the phone. He wants to know what Jason’s face looks like right then so badly.

Roy breathes and tries to break the moment’s tension. “So, what, you wanna share my last name that badly, baby?” 

Fuck. Fuck, why did he say that. He spun around and caught a glimpse of Donna’s face, looking absolutely delighted at his mortification.

There was a strangled sound on the other side of the line, Jason managing you verbalize the “fuck” of Roy’s own thoughts. “That’s not- I mean-...” Roy shoved his knuckles over his mouth, forcing himself to stay silent and not make things worse. A flustered Jaybird was a cute Jaybird, but he needed to hear this as badly as it sounded like Jay needed to say it. “Maybe,” Jason finally says, punching the wind from Roy’s lungs. His voice was gruff, as if trying to unsuccessfully salvage his image by hiding behind it. “But I meant that I picked it because I knew I’d respond. Even if it was just to see if they were calling out to you because I knew that I’d want it to be….”

“Me,” Roy finishes. His heart thudded loudly in his ears, throat tight, and feeling a swell of adrenaline rush his system from the sweetest confession he thinks he’s ever had.

“Yeah.” Jason’s voice sounds hoarse, and he clears his throat. “So, that’s. I just wanted you to know.”

Never in a hundred years would Roy have expected this. Jason might not have been shy about pursuing his goals, but things he really wanted? His connections with other people? Roy can’t recall anything where he’d initiated instead of reacting to what he was given. It told Roy a lot about how good this had been for Jason, it made him feel proud of his friend.

“Jaybird,” Roy all but purred. “If you wanted to go on a date with me, you know, all you had to do was ask.”

Teasing Jason in such an emotional moment might not have been the best choice, as he hears the click of the call disconnecting. Somehow, Roy found this hilarious, hunching over and laughing so hard like his body was trying to find an outlet for the absolute joy in his heart.

“Roy?” Donna asks, sounding a bit concerned. He can’t blame her, he must look like a madman.

He looks up at her, grinning. “He hung up on me.”

Donna stared at him a moment, letting out a sigh. “You know, usually that’s not a good thing.”

Roy hums in acknowledgement, redialing Jason’s number to call him back and snickering. “Sure, but Jay’s a bit of an overdramatic bastard. Look at that, he even turned his phone off,” He says, holding the phone out enough that she can hear the sound of the automated voice telling them to leave a message. “Bet he even took the battery out, assuming he didn’t outright destroy it.”

“By the gods,” she complains, despite her smile. “Alright, that’s it. Get the hell out of here, Speedy.”

“What?” He asks. “Donna, I'm not just going to leave you. Our shift’s only another few hours.”

“Another few hours in which I am absolutely not putting up with you being lovedrunk. Go, shoo,” she gestures him away. “Go see him, kiss the living daylights out of him, bang him—whatever it takes to get it out of your system. In fact, stay the night or something. I’ll cover for you.”

“But-”

“No, no buts.” Donna gives him a stern look. “You're going to be insufferable, and it’s not like we actually need everyone on this one. You and I both know we’re only assigned surveillance in pairs so we don’t get bored. I think I can handle doing it alone this once.”

“You’re the best, Wonder Girl.” Roy smiles, leaning in to kiss her on the cheek in thanks while blindly navigating to Lois’ contact to ask if she knew where Jason was.

“Never doubt it,” Donna replies, shoving him off fondly. “Now get gone.”

Lois’ reply was lightning quick, and the serendipity of it seemed almost too good to be true.

-Where do you think?

Fair enough.