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"Hey, it's just some soup, okay?" Jason said, while holding a cup full of soup towards his guest using his free hand. The other hand, printed with the soulmark on his wrist signifying they were soulmates, was still held tightly to Talon's chest, like it was a stuffed bear. Talon had not let go of the hand since he'd first grabbed it, and soup was the only thing Jason could think of making using only one hand free. The guy, Talon, he supposed, if that was even his name, wouldn't take it though.
The guy had been freezing and the soup would do him some good, but he looked at it as if it was the source of all evil in the World.
"It won't hurt you, yeah? You just drink it, like this."
Jason took an exaggerated sip from the cup to demonstrate to the Talon how to drink soup. He felt ridiculous showing someone how to drink some soup, but Talon *did* take the cup from his hands, so he counted it as a win. Despite taking it though, Talon was holding it in his hand that wasn't currently clutching Jason's hand, doing nothing but staring at Jason with those enormous yellow owl eyes of his. Thankfully he had glasses covering them, or they'd look freakier. Jason sighed, this wasn't who he'd imagined having as a soulmate, at all.
He'd just been out on a regular patrol, when his comms had flashed red, signifying a SOS signal. Oracle had informed him that a high priority, high danger criminal was around his area, a relic from the now-demolished court of owls. Apparently, one of their Talons, the assassins they brainwashed into being a murder weapon, had escaped when the bats had been eviscerating the court.
Aimless without the court, he had been killing anyone that was involved in the destruction of The court, and also anyone that was remotely costumed in any way, associating them with the bats. She said backup would be there in fifteen minutes, and that he stay vigilant till then.
So he'd cocked his gun and amped up his alertness level, taking more measured steps around the roofs than usual as he swung from them. It wasn't in vain. The so-called Talon soon encountered him, holding two pieces of a Bo staff broken in half in either hand.
He was dressed in an old fashioned three piece with gold outlines and an elaborate headpiece containing large goggles, weirdly reminiscent of an owl. Damn, the fashion designers for the court of owls were really committed to the bit, huh?
Nothing except his nose and mouth were visible through the headpiece and mask, betraying nothing but his lips in a straight line. What was visible of his neck and face was deathly pale, with very light black veins running along. That must be the electrum that ran in their veins instead of blood. But wait, the veins on the other Talons had been deep black, way deeper than this one's, and way less in number. Those large, freaky eyes had been staring intently at him from behind the mask, The Talon's face absolutely emotionless.
With a deep, raspy voice, it soon spoke, "The court of owls has sentenced you to die."
Jason scoffed, "I've already died once, I'm in no mood to repeat the experience, Talon."
Searing pain suddenly overtook his arm, like the flesh was being branded against his will. He let out a sharp cry of pain. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Talon uncover his arm, holding it closer to his face as if to inspect it. Was this- oh no. The pain ended in a few seconds, and he immediately pushed back his jacket sleeve to look at his arm. The words, 'The court of owls has sentenced you to die.' were printed on his forearm in blue, in a loopy handwriting.
'Fuck', he thought, with feeling. Talon was his soulmate?! TALON?!
Immediately, he looked up from his still smoking arm towards the assassin standing in front of him. His arm too, was uncovered, and Jason could see the words, 'I've already died once, I'm in no mood to repeat the experience, Talon.' printed across his arm in Jason's own handwriting, in a deep crimson red.
Fuck, they really were soulmates? He thought only alive people could be soulmates, weren't Talons supposed to be dead? He had died too, so he supposed it made some sort of sense. The universe had a cruel, sick sense of humour, and apparently, undead people belonged together.
Talon's deep raspy voice brought him out of his morbid thoughts, "S-soulmate?" It was looking at him with those ginormous eyes again, but somehow, this time they looked like they were puppy dog eyes instead of owl eyes. Maybe the soulmate effect was real after all, like he'd read in that romance novel once.
He wanted to say no, to forget about his ill-fated soulmate once and for all, to somehow ignore the fact that his soulmate was, well, The Talon. But one look at the freaky eyes of the assassin, filled with a tentative hope, was enough for Jason to stop that train of thought. He wouldn't be so shallow, he had seen what became of people who were rejected by their soulmates. Death was a mercy for them, and Talon couldn't even die.
Jason nodded and cautiously took a step forward, and thankfully Talon met him in the middle, taking a step forward too, towards Jason, till they were only inches apart. After staring at Jason for a few seconds, Talon grabbed his arm roughly and pulled it close to his face to look at the soulmark. The sudden grasp on his still tender skin made him hiss a little. If possible, Talon's wide eyes widened even more, and he loosened his grip immediately.
"Mark hurts?" Talon's voice was still rough, probably from disuse.
"Yeah, yours doesn't?"
The talon shook his head, "Only little."
Oh yeah, they couldn't feel pain, right. The Talon still had his hand clutched in his, albeit more loosely than before. But his grip was gentler than ever, like he was cradling something precious.
He had sent Oracle a quick message letting her and the bats know that the Talon situation had been handled. Jason sure as hell hoped there weren't any security camera on the roof they met, courtesy of Oracle, that let everyone know of his soulmate. He didn't want anyone to know, atleast, not yet.
What was he supposed to do with his soulmate now? The usual traditions people followed immediately after finding their soulmate weren't really doable at the moment with his most certainly traumatized soulmate. So, Jason had quickly ushered Talon away from the roof and towards his nearest safe house, Talon keeping a hold on his arm the whole time. He'd tried to get Talon to relinquish his arm, but with no progress.
"Hey, uh, could you let my arm go? We can't grapple very well while you're clutching onto my hand." But Talon had just shaken his head, quite vehemently, and so Jason had left it at that. They'd walked to his safe house instead, an awkward silence between them the whole way. Well, it was only awkward on Jason's side, he thought, Talon had looked quite content walking alongside him with Jason's arm close to his chest.
He'd asked Talon to step inside the house, which he did, with a creepy amount of obedience. Come to think of it, everything Jason had asked Talon to do, he had done, with no resistance or further questions, except for the request to let go of his hand. Seeing how docile someone as dangerous as Talon became when given an order filled Jason with rage, so much rage on behalf of his soulmate. No one was ever this obedient without 'training'. The bruises he could see on Talon's neck and arms, looking just a week old at most, could attest to that.
Once inside, he had locked and double locked every entrance and window, and put the instant soup on. He definitely needed it with how fucking cold he was. When they were halfway inside the safe house, only then had Jason noticed that Talon's hand was deathly cold. His wrist in Talon's grasp was freezing, the cold seeping through his hand into Jason's skin.
Finally, he and Talon were sitting cross-legged on the floor by the small couch in there, because no matter how much Jason insisted, Talon refused to sit on the couch. He just kept on repeating one thing,
"Talon is not allowed."
Jason could practically taste his rage with how fucking angry he was. How dare the court of owls damage a person to this extent?!
Despite Jason's best tries, the soup was still held in one of Talon's hand, his other hand still occupied with freezing Jason's hand. Talon just kept on staring at Jason, with those wide yellow eyes, looking as if Jason was his personal reason for living. No way in hell would Jason ever admit that he was starting to enjoy the gaze.
The soup was still getting cold, though, so Jason tried demonstrating how to drink it again, bringing the tomato soup up to his lips. This time, Talon's eyes lit up, and Jason was just about to celebrate, when instead of drinking it, Talon brought the cup to Jason's mouth.
He just sighed. This was going to take a long time to get anywhere. Oddly enough, Jason wasn't put off by this fact.
"Work with me here, come on dude, you need something hot and filling in you." Jason heard it after he said it and cringed.
But no matter what he said, Talon just stared at him. Comprehension was clear on his face, that showed that he understood everything that Jason said, but didn't really feel any need to do anything Jason said or even reply to him when he wasn't asking direct questions. He sat there, so still, that only the periodic blinking of his huge eyes separated him from an owl inspired Barbie doll.
Jason had to get him to remove that damned headpiece off him first. It looked so cumbersome, the goggles were made of metal, looking like they weighed a million pounds and the fabric covering his head and part of neck looked like it could suffocate anyone who was still breathing in Gotham's humidity. Talon hadn't refused any of his orders till now, what if Jason just asked him?
"Talon? Hey uh what if you...removed the mask?" Jason could see him understanding the question but he made no move to actually do it. He just stared at Jason again.
After a few more minutes of him trying to coax the Talon to drink some soup, Jason gave up. He let out a sigh of frustration, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his free hand. This gesture though, was enough to spur the Talon into action, and he actually, actually drank the soup. Sip by sip, the whole cup was finished. This had Jason feeling more accomplished than when he had killed all those lieutenants in one afternoon.
He was still curious about Talon's face, and still worried about him possibly passing out under the weight of that damn headpiece, so he tried again,
"Talon? The uh....mask? Why don't you remove it?"
Still, no reply. Jason sighed again. Immediately, Talon started unlatching the mask with his free hand. That was easy, somehow, whenever Jason sighed or expressed any sign of frustration, it was enough motivation for Talon to do the thing.
The mask was off in a few seconds, leaving his entire face and shortly cropped hair bare for anyone to see. Jason stopped breathing for a second. That was possibly one of the prettiest man he had ever seen, no, definitely The prettiest. High cheekbones, jawline that could cut glass, pale skin and faintly black veins forming a pattern over it that looked more striking than it had any right to.
"Sorry." Talon's raspy voice pulled him out of his ogling. Sorry?
"For what?"
"My face. Looks wierd." What?! Wierd? Who had told him that? He was going to shoot anyone who made his soulmate feel like that. Wait, that was a weirdly caring statement. When had Jason's started to care about his soulmate to that extent?
"No, no! It looks....pretty."
Talon's eyes looked at him in mild shock, like he couldn't believe Jason thought the prettiest man ever would be pretty. He just nodded and went back to staring at Jason, doing his best impression of an owl.
After sitting like that for another hour or two, Jason's arm was tired. He had it outstretched towards Talon's chest, where it was pressed close to his heart. It was a sweet gesture, but his arm was starting to cramp up.
"Hey uh, Talon? Could you leave my arm please?" He even tugged at it for emphasis, but all that did was put such a sad looking expression on Talon's face that he let the matter rest for a few more minutes. Some more time in his soulmate's grip wouldn't hurt, right?
His phone was still blowing up with messages. Everyone wanted to know what happened to the Talon, ranging from Bruce's calm, " Hood, report to the batcave about the encounter with the Talon as soon as possible.", to Damian's incensed, "It was supposed to be my target, Hood!" along with more messages and calls from Tim and Babs. He ignored them, though, in favour of the Talon sitting in front of him. Jason didn't feel comfortable calling him Talon, he had to have had a name before the court took him, right?
"Talon? What's your name? Real name, I mean."
"Talon." Jason inwardly sighed.
"No like, my name is Jason Todd, even though my alias is Red Hood, so what's yours?"
"Jason?"
Jason smiled as the Talon took his name, it sounded nice coming from him. "Yeah, that's me, so what's yours?"
"Talon is just Talon."
"There must be another name, remember?"
"The other name is not Talon's. It does not belong to Talon."
Does not belong to him? Jason wanted to resurrect the court so he could kill them all over again. How dare they take someone's name from them?!
"My soulmate." Talon spoke up again, distracting Jason from his murderous thoughts. Huh?
"Yeah, yeah, we are soulmates."
"No, *my* soulmate." His grip on Jason's arm tightened even further. Jason was glad he had found his soulmate too, but what did Talon mean?
"I'm not really catching your drift right now, actually."
"Talon's name is the court's, Talon's body is the court's, Talon's mind is the court's. But Soulmate is Talon's." He sounded as sincere as he possibly could, raspy voice shaking a bit.
Oh. Jason was probably the first thing that been truly his own since he had been taken. He smiled involuntarily. Talon smiled back, even if it was small, hesitant.
Jason nodded, "Yeah, *your* soulmate."