Archive of Our Own

Steph was just going about minding her own business when her evening took an abrupt turn from unremarkable to life changing. She was on patrol, but at the very beginning of it, which traditionally was for stretching, getting into the right headspace, and securing snacks. She was eyeing a new taco truck that had popped up – she’d heard good things, and the smells coming from it were heavenly –when Klarion the Witch Boy appeared beside her.

“Betrothed!” Klarion said happily. “I know you’ve been waiting with bated breath, but today’s the day! Time to go!”

“Waiting for what?” Steph said, because she was positive she’d heard that first word incorrectly.

“The wedding, of course.” Klarion said. “All of Limbo Town is awaiting us.”

“I’m going to need you to back up a few steps,” Steph said. “What wedding?”

Klarion gave her a look that made Steph want to squirm– it reminded her uncomfortably of the one that the particularly stern librarian in elementary school would give her when she forgot to whisper. “Ours.”

Hold up. “Um,” Steph said, “I’m flattered and all, but I don’t actually recall us being engaged.”

“We sealed our engagement on the ferris wheel,” Klarion said earnestly.

Oh no. Steph said, “You see, that was not actually an… engagement-sealing kiss. Those usually have a question before them.”

Klarion stared at her. “But everyone is waiting.”

“Yes, but…”

“You’re my betrothed.”

“Not really…”

“We’re bound.”

He looked really pathetic, which is why Steph said the next thing that she did, “And I wish I’d realized sooner what that kiss meant to you, but I’m actually already engaged.”

“No matter, you can still marry me first!”

“Yes, but we’ve already filed the paperwork.” Steph was lying her ass off. “Legally married already, can you believe it? We’ve just been putting off the big ceremony until… until all the family was in town.”

Finally, Klarion deflated. “I can curse him? Turn him into a slug?”

“I like him as a person a bit better,” Steph said, loyal to her fictitious husband.

“Well.” Klarion took heartbreak well, at least. She suspected he wasn’t as gungho about the marriage as he’d initially appeared. Was there pressure from Limbo Town? The place was awful, as Steph recalled. “You’ll have to bring your husband to prove you’re ineligible for the match.”

“Okay,” Steph said. “Absolutely no problems there. I”ll just go… fetch… my husband.”

“And the paperwork proving it’s legally binding,” Klarion said.

“And that, too. Of course. Wouldn’t leave home without it.”

“I’ll wait here.”

“Okay.” Steph bit her lip. “Try not to do any magic or anything, okay? Wouldn’t want to accidentally have an incident.”

Klarion agreed. “Of course, assuming you’re back shortly.”

Steph took off.

She went to the only place she could. The Clock Tower.

“Please tell me you saw that,” Steph said as she burst through the window. “Babs. Please.”

Babs smirked at her. “Late for your own wedding, huh?”

“Baaabs,” Steph said, falling dramatically on the couch that she suspected Dick had placed for similar purposes. “Why do these things happen to me?”

“Because you’re wearing that symbol,” Babs said sagely. “It draws you into the most inexplicable situations.”

“But you’ll get me out of it, right?” Steph said hopefully.

Babs blinked at her.

“Pretty please?” Steph said. She wasn’t above begging.

“Give me a minute,” Babs said, her fingers already flying.

*

“Okay, I have a… solution.” Babs said finally. Steph was lying on the couch, staring at the ceiling, wondering if she was about to have to fake her death. Again. She’d had fifteen whole minutes to stew.

“You don’t sound happy about it,” Steph said, sitting up and looking at Babs.

“Well, part of it is out of my hands, we’ll have to see if he agrees,” Babs said. “But essentially. If you don’t actually have a husband by the time you go back to Klarion, he could very well sweep you off to Limbo Town and legally wed you there.”

“So we don’t let him sweep me off,” Steph says. “I can lie low. I’m like, graduate level at lying low.”

Babs gave her a look. “Or we can make sure you have the paperwork that proves that you didn’t lie.”

“Even though I super did,” Steph said.

“Exactly.” Babs paused for a second. “The only issue is that you need someone to be your husband.”

“Not a problem I woke up with, but yes,” Steph said. “Tim owes me, call him up.”

“He’s off on a mission with the Titans,” Babs said. “And since Klarion is waiting on you across town, we need someone closer.”

Steph didn’t like Babs’ tone. “Cass?”

“You already told Klarion you had a husband,” Babs pointed out. “Plus, she’s Bruce Wayne’s adopted daughter. It would hit every newspaper if she suddenly got married.”

“Everyone’s one of Bruce’s kids,” Steph grumbled. “Well, except you, and no offense, but I’d feel weird marrying you.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Babs said wryly.

That was when Jason appeared in the window, fully outfitted as Red Hood and ducking in. “There’s an emergency?”

Steph… hadn’t even considered Jason. Huh.

She turned to Babs. “I thought we weren’t looking for one of Bruce’s kids.”

“Legally he’s dead,” Babs said evenly.

“Then won’t that cause as many issues?”

“I’ve done a workaround,” Babs said.

Steph thought about it a second. It wasn’t like she was really marrying him. And like, honestly, there wasn’t much to object there – they didn’t spend much time together but they tended to get along, and she knew Jason was ride-or-die, so it was likely he’d agree. Anything to save a fellow former Robin’s ass.

“Hello? Emergency?” Jason said, waving his hands a little at them. “Not… whatever thing you’re discussing about me?”

“Steph here has a proposal for you,” Babs said brightly. “Steph?”

Steph glared. Babs’ sense of humor always came out at the most inopportune times. “Yes, well, you see. I do have a proposal."

Jason looked between them. “This isn’t feeling dire. I’m guessing there aren’t any supervillains on the loose?”

“See, the thing is,” Steph began, “I need someone to marry – just in the legal sense! – that would be chill with coming with me and pretending to be my husband for just a few minutes. Well, it’ll be legal so less-pretending and more just showing up and, you know, existing.”

Jason stared at her. “A proposal. That’s an actual proposal. Like, one of the worst ones ever, if we’re being honest here.”

“It wasn’t worse than Darcy’s first one,” Steph said, because she hadn’t insulted Jason or his family a single time, and she very easily could have.

“Debatable,” Jason said. “At least he–”

“Children!” Babs said loudly. “Steph, if you’ll recall, you’re on a time crunch.”

“Oh, yeah,” Steph said. “Jason clearly isn’t on board, so I’ll go with Plan B. I’ll need a one-way ticket somewhere inexplicable, please. I’m partial to somewhere with a beach this time.”

“I didn’t say I wasn’t on board, I just wasn’t expecting it,” Jason protested. “Why do you need a husband?”

“Because Klarion the Witch Boy thinks I’m his betrothed and is waiting across town to take me to our wedding ceremony in Limbo Town.” Steph crinkled her nose. “I didn’t exactly make friends last time I was there, so I’d really prefer to not do that. Plus I don’t want to marry him. He looks twelve. It’s creepy.”

Jason blinked again. “You know, you try to act like you’re the normal one, then you come up with a problem like this.”

“I do not,” Steph said, unclear about which part she was actually protesting.

“How did you get engaged to him anyway?”

“I didn’t!” Steph said. “I just gave him one little kiss.”

Jason gave a judging look.

“It was Valentine’s Day!” Steph said. “It was situationally appropriate! I didn’t know he was going to build up a whole potential marriage out of it!”

“Must have been one hell of a kiss,” Jason said. “If I agree to marry you, do I get one too?”

“No,” Steph said stubbornly, only just resisting the urge to stick out her tongue at him. She turned to Babs. “If Jason doesn't agree, I bet we could get Superboy. Imagine how much it would piss Tim off, it’d be hilarious.”

“Hey, marrying me would totally piss Tim off more,” Jason protested. “Way funnier.”

Babs looked between them for a long second and then clicked a few times and started to print something out.

“What’s that?” Steph said as Babs held out the piece of paper.

“A copy of your marriage license,” Babs said. “Backdated for last week.”

“Isn’t there supposed to be a ceremony or something?” Jason wondered. “Like. I’m pretty sure I'm supposed to say I do at some point.”

“I was expediting things before Klarion gets bored out there,” Babs said. “But if it makes you feel better, do you?”

She looked at them expectantly.

“I do,” they grumbled in unison.

“Alright, off you go,” Babs said. “Have fun on your honeymoon!”

Steph caught Jason’s eye and knew they would absolutely be pranking the hell out of her later.

*

“Here he is!” Steph said brightly as they approached Klarion. He’d relocated to an ice cream shop and was holding an ice cream cone in hand that one glance at the cashier told Steph he had not paid for.

Well. At least no one had been transformed.

Klarion looked at Jason with narrowed eyes. Steph couldn’t tell what Jason was doing back, because he’d put his Red Hood helmet back on for the introduction. Steph suspected it was to hide his laughter. Klarion turned to her. “You have your documents?”

“One marriage license, coming right up,” Steph said, and dug out the paper Babs had given her out of her utility belt. “Never leave home without it.”

There was already some goop on the corner of it; she really needed to clean out that compartment. It added a certain something, a patina, verisimilitude if you will, that screamed this totally wasn’t printed out five minutes ago. Klarion handled the paper gingerly, but nodded to himself. “To Limbo Town we go!”

*

The less said about that, the better.

She did smirk and poke Jason in the side. “You look very dashing,” she said, managing not to laugh as Jason glared down at his outfit.

“This is the most undignified thing I’ve ever worn,” he muttered back. He poked at his pantaloons. They were stretched tight over his thighs, it was honestly a good look. “There are buckles on my shoes."

“Green panties,” Steph whispered back.

Jason abruptly stopped complaining about his Limbo Town attire. Which was good, because then Steph stopped being tempted to compliment his pantaloons. That was clearly a slipperly slope.

But they made a good show of being a couple – even held hands! – and the wedding meant for Steph and Klarion was officially called off with minimal bloodshed.

*

“We can get it annulled,” Steph said once they were back in Gotham. “I mean. If Babs can’t undo what she did.”

Jason shrugged. “It’s no big deal. It’s probably fake anyway.”

“Yeah, probably,” Steph said doubtfully. “Thanks, though. You really did me a solid.”

“Always glad to help keep a fellow Robin from getting sold into marriage,” Jason said.

And that was that.

*

Only after that, Jason started calling on Steph for help more often.

He didn’t explicitly say it was payback or that he was calling in a favor or anything. It just felt like she was on his radar in a way she hadn’t been before, and now she was getting called up to assist in all sorts of fun misadventures.

Jason’s misadventures tended to be a bit bigger than her own, which was both exhilerating and a little alarming. She probably would have been stressing a lot more if he hadn’t been there, but she trusted him and his skill, and it turned out they worked well together.

It was also fun to throw the occasional “For better or for worse, huh?” type comment at him mid-battle. On the occasions he was just wearing the domino mask and not the helmet, it caused a grin to overtake his features that Steph found irresistible.

Not that she would tell him that.

They didn’t actually discuss the marriage itself, though. They treated it like an inside joke more than anything – Steph had confirmed with Babs that she hadn’t told anyone, and she would get an alert if anyone stumbled across the information online.

Steph hadn’t seen a reason to share the news with anyone, either. It wasn’t shame or anything, it just felt like that was making a bigger deal of it than it was. Because, honestly, it wasn’t something she thought of often.

Usually just when she was with Jason.

They did mutually decide to not share the news with the other Bats until the moment called for it, with heavy understanding that called for it meant most hilarious moment to reveal it.

*

Jason took to responding to any suggestion of Steph’s that he deemed foolhardy with a single image of Darcy. Devastating.

Once, he casually said, “You’re such a Lydia,” and Steph actually abandoned the goon she was taking down to go shove Jason off the side of the building.

“He’ll be fine,” she reassured the goon he had been battling before realizing that was unnecessary.. “Unlike you,” and took both of them down herself, fueled by the white-hot rage of such an insult.

*

The first time Cass saw them together, she paused, head tilted bird-like in that way she did when she was unsure about body language – a rarity – then gave them both an inscrutable look.

“What?” Steph said. “Cass. You can’t just do that and then not say anything.”

Cass just shook her head, but she was radiating amusement.

Steph dove after her, demanding an explanation, while Jason said nothing at all.

*

One day, Steph came home to find a bouquet of red roses on her doorstep.

She was immediately wary. Was this a weirdly personal attack from Poison Ivy? Sure, she didn’t usually go for cut flowers, but what else would a bouquet be doing on her doorstep? Steph was painfully single.

She slid on a glove to lift out the card, wary that it might be laced with who-knows-what. She’d sat through enough What To Do If Poison Ivy Whammies You slideshows in the cave to be alarmed.

The card read, Happy Anniversary!

Steph blinked at it.

She flipped it over.

Three months already! Time flies when you’re not in Puritan hell! Xoxo

Steph couldn’t hold back the giggle.

She sent Jason a box of donuts in thanks.

*

More joint missions, more spontaneous team-ups, and soon it started to feel natural to turn to Jason as often as she did Cass or Tim or Babs.

Only, they didn’t really advertise the change – why would they? It had happened so organically – so Steph supposed it was understandable, the confused look that Bruce was leveling their way.

Well, the mostly inscrutable look he was leveling at them that Steph could feel bafflement radiating off of. She had a sixth sense for these things.

“What?” she asked. She’d never censored herself around Bruce before, she wasn’t about to start today.

“I was unaware that you two were close.” Bruce’s tone was mild. No hint as to whether he thought the idea of Jason and Steph bonding was a positive or a negative.

They exchanged a glance and shrugged.

“We’ve been teaming up more,” Steph said.

“Steph likes to use me for my brain during stakeouts,” Jason said.

“I asked your opinion on a paper one time,” Steph said, “and you were wrong, besides.”

“I was not wrong,” Jason snapped back. He turned to Bruce. “She tried to claim that Frankenstein was her favorite nineteenth century novel.”

“It’s not a claim,” Steph gritted out. “It’s a true statement of opinion.”

“The only valid opinion is Pride and Prejudice and you know it,” Jason shot back. “My girl Jane created a timeless fucking masterpiece.”

“Well my girl Mary created an entire fucking genre, so eat shit,” Steph shot back.

They both turned to Bruce expectantly.

“I’m partial to Heart of Darkness,” he said after a pause.

“Oh my god,” Jason said.

“The fucking horrors, indeed,” Steph agreed, because, seriously.

She didn’t miss the small smile that played at the corner of Bruce’s mouth, though. As soon as Jason’s back was turned, she mouthed, “You totally agree with me,” at him, and Bruce steadily didn’t look her way.

Yeah. She totally won that argument. And they had managed to derail Bruce from thinking any more about their supposed bond.

A double win. Because suddenly she realized she had married Bruce’s son without saying anything for months, and… yeah.

Maybe the fact that they were keeping it quiet was starting to feel more like a shared secret than an inside joke. Something for just the two of them, but not… just not a joke.

She pushed that thought aside, because it made something in her stomach lurch uncomfortably.

*

Damian viewed her friendship with Jason as a betrayal.

Well.

He didn’t say it in as many words. Just hissed venomously in Jason’s direction when the three of them converged on the same robbery.

The robbers were woefully underprepared for having Batgirl, Red Hood and Robin appear near-simultaneously from opposite directions. She’s pretty sure one peed his pants. Another guy looked vaguely familiar – had they gone to middle school together? – and cried piteously when Robin’s bo staff hit his knee.

They had all six robbers trussed up and waiting for GCPD within three minutes. None of them even broke a sweat. Steph loved feeling competant.

“Burgers?” Steph said cheerfully as they watched from the roof as the robbers were hauled into an actual paddywagon. Good to see GCPD was keeping things classic.

“I’m thinking tacos,” Jason said. They both turned expectantly to Damian.

He scowled at them. “What?”

“You’re the tiebreaker,” Steph said, because she’d picked up on the fact that Damian needed things spelled out for him when he got defensive like that. He didn’t like not knowing things but a childhood in the League of Assassins hadn’t done wonders for his ability to just ask. “Burger or taco?”

“Taco,” muttered Damian, not looking in Jason’s direction.

“Betrayed,” Steph said dramatically, falling over. “I thought we were buddies. I thought we were comrades. Does our shared history mean nothing to you?”

Damian rolled his eyes but she could see that pleased little flush on his neck, the one he got when he was reminded that people cared for him.

Jason offered her a hand, pulling her back up, and Steph was grateful the Batgirl cowl hid the way she could feel her ears going hot at the feel of his hand in hers.

They fit nicely.

“There’s a new taco truck I want to try,” she said, pushing aside that thought and taking control of the situation. If she didn’t get to pick the cuisine, she’d at least choose the location, because she knew Jason favored that place near the Narrows with salsa that tasted like canned tomatoes. An atrocity, but he couldn’t be swayed.

Damian tried to split halfway there, but Jason corralled him easily, and soon they were on a rooftop, Damian tucked between them for safekeeping while they ate their post-beatdown snack.

“Where are you off to in such a hurry anyway?” Jason asked Damian. Steph knew from his expression (when had she learned all his expressions?) that he wasn’t trying to goad Damian.

“Nowhere,” Damian muttered. He kept glancing between them.

“You’re uncomfortable,” Steph said. “Why?”

Damian stared down at the paper tray in his lap, prodding the remnants of his bean burrito. “I need to get back to patrol.”

“There’s literally nothing else going down right now,” Steph said. “Babs actually yawned when giving us the update.”

Damian seemed to hunch in on himself. It was a slight movement, but Steph had spent enough time with him to notice.

“He doesn’t want to be near me,” Jason said suddenly. Damian went still.

“That’s not it,” Damian said.

“Then what?”

Damian’s eyes cut around, clearly trying to map out a clean escape, but his shoulders slump when he realized that they had him boxed in. “I didn’t realize you two were close.”

Steph blinked, confused, but to her surprise Jason seemed to relax, like that was any sort of explanation. “Oh, so that’s it?”

“Is this a weird boy thing?” Steph asked.

“He thinks I’m moving in on his Batgirl,” Jason said easily.

“No, I don’t!” Damian said, but the flush was back, this time from embarrassment. He was so adorable when he was embarrassed. It made Steph want to scoop him up and coo at him, which she had tried before and had only narrowly avoided getting stabbed.

“So it is a weird boy thing,” Steph said, happy she was right.

“Probably more of a weird Robin thing,” Jason corrected.

Steph paused, thought about how territorial she was over Cass, who was the Batgirl to her Robin, then thought about how she’d feel if Cass started spending more time with, say, Dick than Steph. “Oh. That’s totally valid. LIke, I get it,” she told Damian earnestly, which only made him flush harder and protest. “I had to share Cass with Tim, and Jason here had to toddle around after Babs when she was attached to Dick at the hip. You’ve never had to share before.”

“I do not… you’re not my Batgirl,” Damian said. He didn’t meet either of their eyes.

“Listen, as the reigning expert in Batgirls and Robins,” Steph began.

Jason interrupted her with a snort. “You are not.”

“I’m sorry, did I blink and miss your stint as Batgirl? I’m the only one who has been both, ergo, I’m the expert.”

“I definitely know more about this than you.”

“No, definitely not,” Steph said. She turned back to Damian. “Like I was saying, you hold a near-and-dear place in my heart, and I definitely wouldn’t replace you with someone with such egregiously bad taste in salsa.”

Both blinked at that.

“Now’s when we do our secret handshake,” Steph said in a loud whisper.

“We don’t have a secret handshake,” Damian said, confused.

“Not yet. Jason, turn around, it’s not a secret if you watch.”

She grinned as Jason obediently turned his back so she could get Damian to a faintly ridiculous sequence of actions. Damian’s embarrassment returned, but he kept up and even suggested adding a flourish at the end.

It was a good evening.

*

She was just getting out of class when she got a call.

“Hey.” There was a strained quality to Jason’s voice she’d never heard before. “Bored?”

“Never,” Steph replied. “What’s up?”

“Kinda in a situation,” Jason said. A grunt. Steph’s mind flew to an extremely inappropriate place. “Can you help out?”

“What kind of situation?” she asked, pushing aside the thoughts that were coming to mind. This was not a sexy call. Jason wouldn’t… they were just friends.

“I got just a teensy bit stabbed,” Jason gritted out. Another low, heavy exhale. Even knowing the context, Steph’s mind was still in the gutter, and she hated how hot that she thought he sounded.

“And you need a ride to the hospital?” Steph said hopefully, but knowing in her heart what Jason was about to ask.

“Or something,” Jason said, and gave her the coordinates.

A few minutes later, Steph was standing in an alley staring down at Jason, who was bleeding piteously onto the pavement. “There’s a clinic, like, three blocks over,” she said again.

Jason rolled his eyes at her. “‘Tis only a flesh wound.”

“Do you know how many times TIm has tried that line on me,” Steph said flatly just to see the light go out of Jason’s eyes.

The annoying thing was, he was right. The stab wound was minor, on his thigh, and only bleeding sluggishly. More a glancing blow than a full penetration, which Steph announced cheerfully just to see Jason twitch when she said the word penetration. It was nowhere near an artery, and the slice was clean enough that it would only need a handful of stitches and maybe some superglue. Well, the medical-grade skin adhesive, but Steph liked to call it as she saw it.

The only issue was…

“So I’m gonna need to get you out of those pants,” Steph said. “Are you partial to public semi-nudity or do you wanna take this somewhere more private?”

Jason groaned – she didn’t think it was from the pain – and said, “There’s a safehouse nearby.”

“Isn’t there always,” Steph said. “Must be nice being a nepo baby.”

“That hurt more than the knife,” Jason told her firmly as he struggled to his feet. Steph took pity on him and slid under one arm, letting him use her as a crutch as they made their way to the safehouse.

It said a lot about Gotham that their flimsy cover worked. He’d taken off his helmet and domino mask, and she’d dug out a Gotham U bandana she’d gotten for free at some event that had been floating around the bottom of her backpack all semester to tie around the wound. Mostly to cover the blood, because he was for sure going to have to do a round of antibiotics after that. She was pretty sure she’d just introduced a whole ecosystem of crumbs into his wound.

Not that she was going to mention that to Jason.

The safehouse, it turned out, was more of a Jason’s-actual-house situation. There was a mostly-empty coffee mug on the table. The bed was unmade. The bookshelves were cluttered and Steph itched to take a closer look. Somewhere, she could hear the hum of the dryer running, and she was just impressed that he’d done laundry before going out fighting crime. She never did and ended crawling out of bed in the middle of the night to switch her clothes over so she’d have something clean and dry to wear in the morning.

“Pants off,” she said, like Jason had somehow forgotten why she’d helped shuffle him here.

He stared at her for a minute, then gestured for her to turn away. “A little privacy?”

“I’m about to sew your leg together,” Steph said as she turned on her heel. “I’m gonna see your undies. Unless you didn’t wear any, which is kinda gross, given how often I know these uniforms get reworn.”

“I’m wearing underwear,” Jason said defensively. She could hear shuffling and a few grunts and hisses that meant he was working his pants down over the wound. She waited to turn around until he gave the all clear, because now that she was thinking about it… she wouldn’t want Jason watching her take her pants off. It would make her feel all sorts of ways. She fiddled around with his med kit, preparing everything she’d need to suture his leg.

“Okay,” Jason said, and she turned around. He was sitting on the couch, one of the throw pillows clutched in his lap.

Should she… should she say something about that? Her immediate reaction was that he was using it in the traditional sense pioneered by teenage boys, to hide an inconvenient boner. But his body language was loose, legs sprawled out in front of him. The injured one was angled so she could reach the wound easily, and he’d thoughtfully spread a towel underneath it so he wouldn’t bleed on his couch. Clearly he’d been in this position before.

“Okay, Jason and his emotional support pillow, ready for some doctorin’?” Steph said, carrying the med kit over. She’d washed her hands as soon as she’d gotten here, noting the lack of dishes in the sink. Jason was a good housekeeper. Good to know one of them was, a little part of her seemed to whisper, the part that was trying to admire the clearly defined muscles of Jason’s thighs and calves, and was trying to picture what, exactly, he was packing under that pillow.

“It’s for your bony-ass elbows,” Jason said, adjusting it. “So don’t jab me.”

The cut ran up Jason’s leg, and… yeah, she was probably going to have to hunch over his lap to sew it up properly, and yeah, she would absolutely have simply rested her elbows on him if she needed. It was good foresight.

Besides, why would he have a boner? He was stabbed and all she’d done was shuffle him to his own front door. Nothing sexy about this situation, lack of pants aside.

So she focused on his wound, all professional-like, and waited until she was half-done before she tugged at the bottom edge of his boxer-briefs that were poking out from under the pillow and said, “Really, boring black? Where’s the fun? Where’s the pizzazz?”

“It’s laundry day,” Jason said, as straight-faced as one could while having a stab wound amateurly sutured while sitting on his own couch in his undies.

“Boring,” Steph said again.

“So yours are so much better?: Jason said with a bit of challenge in his voice. Steph’s eyes shot up from his thigh to his face, and was rewarded with seeing him actually blush. It was so cute.

“Of course,” Steph said cheerfully. “I’m not boring.”

She usually was, honestly, but today she happened to be wearing a gift from Kara. She tugged her sweatpants down just enough that he could see the print. It was of chibi versions of Batgirl and Supergirl doing various activities. She wasn’t going to fully pull off her pants but her favorite scene was the one where they were each walking a dog. The tiny Batgirl was walking a bat on a leash. Steph had laughed until she’d cried when Kara had presented them with a flourish.

Jason stared. “Oh my god.”

“Right?” Steph said, delighted. “They’re the best thing I own.”

“I kinda want a pair.”

“Now I know what to get you for our anniversary,” Steph said before she thought better of it.

“I’m pretty sure the first one’s paper, not cotton,” Jason said.

“Eh, we don’t seem that traditional,” Steph said. She could feel the heat in her cheeks, and she wasn’t… she wasn’t quite sure why. She focused back on Jason’s bleeding thigh, which seemed safer, somehow.

“No, we don’t,” Jason said quietly.

Silence fell between them, and it wasn’t precisely uncomfortable, but there was something to it that had Steph feeling slightly on edge. Like they were on the cusp of something.

She was glad when she finished with his wound, bandaging it carefully and repeating her advice about the antibiotics. “Especially since, you know, I’m not actually trained in this.”

“You’re good at it, though,” Jason said. “I knew I made the right call.”

The compliment made her feel warm, and she climbed to her feet, hoping that her cheeks weren’t as red as they felt. “Thanks. Try not to get stabbed again, okay? We don’t need a repeat.”

“Of course not.” He stood, setting the pillow aside. Steph couldn’t help it, she had to check out the situation he had going on. No visible boner, which… was she disappointed? Weird reaction for not seeing a work friend’s erection. “Oi! Eyes up here!”

“Sorry!” Steph said, realizing belatedly she was staring really intently at Jason’s crotch. No coming back from that. Might as well embrace it. “Can’t a girl check out what her husband’s packing?”

Jason made a flustered noise and reached for the pillow again, but Steph said, “No, no, I’m out of here.” She paused, because… she didn’t want him to feel like she was objectifying him or anything. “Sorry. I just… Sorry. Feel better soon!”

Flushing, she fled from his apartment.

*

They didn’t team up daily, but still, Jason’s silence felt pointed when it continued on for the next two days.

Steph found herself in the Clocktower.

“So now I think I messed up,” Steph concluded.

Babs stared at her.

“Now’s when you tell me how I messed up,” Steph said. She’d poured her heart out and shared the entire saga of how she’d gotten Jason out of his pants and made things weird between them.

“I’m going to be completely honest,” Babs said. “I kind of thought you two were already sleeping together. So this is throwing me for a loop here.”

Now it was Steph’s turn to stare at Babs. “Why would you think that?”

“You two are very… vibe-y.” Babs didn’t seem to want to say more than that.

“I genuinely have no clue what you’re talking about,” Steph said.

Babs took off her glasses, cleaning them unnecessarily. “I think you need to find him and have a frank discussion about what happened and what you want to happen between you two.”

“Okay, but what should I actually do?” Steph said. Because while, yeah, that sounded good on paper, that was not how Bats functioned and Babs knew it.

Babs sighed. “Just… just talk to him. Ignore what happened if you want, but you can’t close yourselves off or else this will spiral.”

“Okay, fine, I can do that,” Steph said uncertainly. “I’ve been talking to him for months now! It’s no big deal.”

“That’s the spirit,” Babs said.

“Just one more thing,” Steph added, “did you think we were together before or after you married us?”

“Just go,” Babs said, making a shooing motion.

*

Steph, in the spirit of go big or go home, went to the bakery first.

Babs had helpfully told her that Jason was home, so she found herself on his doorstep an hour later, box in hand. She didn’t want to tilt it, so she kicked his door a few times in lieu of knocking.

“What the hell–” Jason stopped abruptly as he swung open the door and realized who he was staring at. “Steph?”

“Hi!” Steph said, bustling past him into his house. “Sorry to barge in, but I got you a present!”

“Why did you get me a present?”

“The present explains itself,” Steph said. She set the box on his kitchen table and opened it with a flourish.

It was a cookie cake declaring Sorry I Made Things Weird When Your Pants Came Off. Instead of roses, it was decorated with little knives. The baker hadn’t even blinked when she’d requested cute little blood drops coming off them.

Gotta love Gotham.

“Oh my god,” Jason said, staring at the cake.

“I wanted to get a strawberry cake, cuz you said that’s your favorite, only they were too small to fit the message,” Steph said. She was rambling a bit, because Jason had an expression on his face she’d never seen before.

Then he started to laugh. A full-bodied laugh, one that went on and on, tears soon streaming down his face. Steph looked back at the cake, acknowledged the ridiculousness of the situation, and soon she was curled up beside him, laughing until she cried.

The cake was delicious.

*

Things went back to normal after that.

Well, kinda. Sort of. Not really, but they were both doing a pretty killer job of pretending things had gone back to normal, and Steph was unwilling to rock the boat, for once in her life.

The boat felt too important.

Somehow her friendship with Jason had become something vital to her, and from the sharp ache even that short miscommunication had wrought, she didn’t want to risk it.

But they were back to sending each other silly texts, and finding themselves patrolling the same stretches of Gotham multiple times a week. One night Jason said, “You know where I live now, so feel free to stop by.”

His place was closer to campus than her own, so she started making herself at home there between classes when the library was too crowded or the lure of his snack cabinet was too strong. He stocked way better stuff than she did. That was the excuse she used when she slipped in. He'd given her a key after the third time she’d banged on the door until he’d blearily slammed it open and said, “Just let yourself in next time, I just fell asleep,” before wandering back to bed and burrowing under his blankets.

So she had.

She wasn’t a total monster, so she’d started making him coffee for when he got up, slumping his way to the table and gingerly stretching muscles he’d abused the night before. She usually studied at that table, and it was surprisingly nice to sit across from each other, quiet and doing their own thing, except for his mumbled thanks for the coffee.

“Least I could do,” Steph would say airily, knowing he’d figure out pretty soon how much of a dent she’d made in his pantry.

He didn’t even bitch about it. She could usually even get Alfred to bitch after she’d gone grocery shopping in the manor’s pantry. Didn’t even request she start a list on the fridge of what all needed replaced.

Just smiled blearily at her.

So yeah.

Things were almost the same, except for how Steph’s stomach flipped every time she saw that smile.

*

“Do I have a type?” Steph wondered out loud. She and Cass were purportedly on a stakeout, though it honestly didn’t quite justify the name. There was a new counterfeit ring forming, and they were watching the most likely source for the ink, because Babs hadn’t found anything online.

So yeah. They were hanging out across the street from an office supply store, hoping someone would come and buy an extravagant amount of ink.

Steph had brought her homework, but she kept thinking about, well. Things.

Cass turned and raised her eyebrow. Steph knew she wanted more information.

“I just. Well. So I haven’t said anything, but I kinda sorta married Jason a few months ago.”

Cass apparently did not know this. She let out a squacking sound and fell over, nearly spilling her boba.

Steph reached out and snagged it as Cass gracefully climbed back to her feet.

“What do you mean, married?”

“It was just for show! I needed a legal husband,” Steph said, giving a quick synapsis of the events leading to the marriage in question. “And like, it probably should have been immediately anulled, but we kinda thought it was funny, and it was an inside joke. Still is.”

Cass said, “What does this have to do with your types?”

“Well,” Steph said. “I’ve been, you know. Noticing him.”

“Jason,” Cass said flatly.

“Yes,” Steph said. “It’s kind of hard not to, you know? I mean. He’s…” She didn’t know how she wanted to finish that sentence.

“I hadn’t noticed,” Cass said dryly.

“Yeah, but like, he’s your brother,” Steph said. “Like, legally.”

“The same way he’s your husband,” Cass agreed.

Steph blinked. “Wait. Wait. Cass. I just realized. We’re sisters.”

Cass rolled her eyes at her, but she looked pleased. “So are you going to try to date Jason?”

Steph shook her head. “No. It… No. I don’t want to mess up what we have.” The pants incident had taught her that. “But like… now I know I have a thing, you know? I just gotta ignore it. I’m good at that. I can not be shallow and pretend like i can’t tell how hot he is.”

“Good plan,” Cass said, and yeah, she was totally making fun of Steph. She narrowed her eyes at her. “Wait, did you know this already?”

“Not the marriage part,” Cass said calmly. “The other was obvious.”

The other part? The fact that she thought Jason was hot? What did Cass mean by that? “Obvious? What do you mean, obvious?”

Cass, infuriatingly, did not answer, just focused her attention on the office supply store, a little smile playing on her lips.

*

Dick decided it was time for a Robins-only game night.

Steph wasn’t sure what inspired this, but Tim invited her. Actually Tim sent be there or be square and Steph showed it to Jason so they could make fun of him together before she made fun of him to his face.

Really, part of her was just shocked that she made the invite list, so she covered that up with some light mockery.

But she trekked out to Wayne Manor ready in her soul for some Alfred-prepared snacks and to kick some Robin butt at board games.

It turned out that Dick sucked at choosing games (Seriously, Clue? With this crowd?) so Steph made Tim take over, which sucked in a different direction. Tim’s favorite games all required a full hour of setup and rule-reading. Duke just shook his head at all of them, though she could tell he was genuinely interested in Tim’s game.

Eventually they abandoned the game aspect of the night and ended up just hanging out. Steph discovered Damian had never seen The Emperor’s New Groove so she set about fixing that.

“I don’t understand why I need to watch a child’s show.”

“You’re always complaining you don’t get pop culture references,” Steph said, “so here’s a reference. Study away, young padawan.”

“This movie is dumb.”

“You’re invested,” Steph sing-songed, getting a glare but not a protest in response.

Dick grinned at that, and Jason and Tim actually put aside their usual antagonism to team up on Dick, instead, Steph suspected that most of their jabs at each other were from a place of fun, because both had that bitchy streak that had to get out somehow. They brought it out in each other. It was kinda cute.

Eventually Damian fell asleep on the couch, curled up against Titus. It was painfully adorable. Steph cooed at them. There was a trail of drool puddling on the arm of the couch, and Steph happily took a picture of it, knowing it would take a place of honor on her fridge.

That was when Jason raided the liquor cabinet.

“Don’t get that one, it’s water,” Dick called out as Jason’s hand lingered near the vodka. He turned and raised an eyebrow at Dick.

“What?” Dick said, unrepentant. “It’s been here since I lived here. It’s not like Bruce is gonna drink it, and no one would accuse Bruce Wayne of watering down his drinks.”

Steph giggled. Jason grabbed the next bottle over instead, getting a nod of approval from Dick, and soon they were all nursing glasses of some undoubtedly outrageously expensive tequila.

Dick paused before pouring Duke a glass, then grabbed the allegedly water-vodka and poured him one of those instead. Duke accepted it with a, “Fair enough.”

“I didn't think you could drink tequila straight,” Steph said philosophically, staring at her glass. “I thought it was a grin-and-bear-it type of drink.”

“It’s drinkable when it costs this much,” Dick said.

“So not what they serve out of bathtubs at Gotham U, then,” Steph said.

“You’re not drinking out of bathtubs, are you?” Tim said, sounding slightly horrified.

“It’s college, Timmy, you wouldn’t understand,” Steph told him airily. Jason snorted.

“Was it purple? The bathtub booze was always purple when I was there,” Dick said.

“I’ve also seen a blue variation,” Steph said. “Once, red, but no one touched it because it looked like a murder scene. The watermelon chunks were a mistake.”

“Animals,” Tim muttered, like he had any room to talk.

“I have personally witnessed you drink week-old energy drinks off your desk,” Steph said. “Opened ones. Your body is not a temple, my friend.”

“Pretty sure none of our bodies are temples,” Tim said. His cheeks were already flushed.

“That’s not what the internet said about Dickie-boy,” Jason teased.

“We are not discussing the internet tonight,” Dick said. “I brought us here to play games.”

“Drinking games are games,” Steph said.

“Yes, they are,” Dick said. “See, someone gets it.” He paused. “Wait, are you guys old enough to drink? Am I committing a crime right now?”

Steph rolled her eyes. “I don’t see any crimes. Tim? You see any crime?”

“None,” Tim said. Duke snickered.

Dick sighed, looked at the ceiling briefly, then took another swig. “Never have I ever?”

The night devolved from there.

Most of the confessions were silly things, like whether they’d ever kissed a supervillain.

Steph tried not to drink to that one, but Jason coughed the name Klarion and Steph sighed and joined the club.

A few harder-hitting questions were thrown out – Steph and Duke were the only non-orphans, technicality though it might be – and then Duke, eyeing Dick and Tim, who was starting to slur his words, said cheekily, “Never have I ever been engaged.”

Dick and Tim groaned in unison and took a drink. Steph caught Jason’s eye, and… well, it had been an incredibly short engagement but it had technically happened.

They also took a drink.

Steph settled her cup down to Tim’s eyes on her. “Wait, what?”

“It’s a game,” she explained. “If you’ve been engaged, you take a drink.”

“You’ve never been engaged,” Tim said, sounding awfully sure of himself.

Dick was also eyeing Jason. “Neither have you.”

“Shows what you know,” Jason said cheerfully. “Not as many times as you, and it was admittedly a short engagement, but I have.”

“A short engagement,” Dick said. “Like, how long?”

“I want to say two minutes?”

“Maybe three?” Steph said. “Babs would know.”

“Yeah,” Jason said. “Ask Babs.”

“How do you know?” Tim asked. He was looking between them with an expression of growing horror, like he could almost see the shape of it.

“I was there,” Steph said. “I can confirm. Jason was briefly engaged to be married.”

Duke watched them all with the wide, sober eyes of someone watching a trainwreck in slow motion.

“When was this?” Dick said. He seemed more baffled than anything. “Who would want to marry Jason?”

“Steph,” Tim said, and for a second she thought he was answering Dick’s question, but he was starting one of his own. “Steph, when did you get engaged.”

“It was, like, five months ago?”

“Six,” Jason corrected.

“Not yet, that’s next week,” Steph said. She knew because she had a pair of chibi Supergirl and Batgirl undies wrapped up with a big bow in the back of her closet.

“Same difference,” Jason shrugged.

Dick and Duke joined Tim in looking between them.

Tim was the one who asked. “Were you two engaged to.. each other?”

“Briefly, yes,” Steph said.

She was pretty sure she’d never seen that look of blank astonishment on Tim’s face before. “But… why?”

“Briefly means they quickly realized it was a mistake,” Dick said reassuringly.

“Hey!” Jason said, sounding actually offended. “Who said it was a mistake?”

“Well, brief engagements usually mean it was a mistake,” Dick said.

“You said it was three minutes long,” Duke added.

“Well, yeah,” Steph said. “That’s cuz we got married then.”

Silence reigned in Wayne Manor for one long, long moment. Steph realized in that time that maybe she was drunker than she thought, because she absolutely had not intended to drop that particular bomb.

She caught Jason’s eye and was thankful that he just looked amused.

Good.

“I’m sorry,” Dick said after a moment. “We’re talking a fake marriage, right?”

“It’s legal,” Jason said cheerfully. “Got a license and everything.”

Tim looked between them with a furrow between his eyes. “But… why?”

“Excellent question, Timothy,” Steph said brightly. “It was because I couldn’t get married if I was already married.”

“Why do you have people lining up to marry you?” Duke asked.

“Look at me,” Steph shot back.

“It’s because you didn’t keep your mouth to yourself,” Jason said.

“Oh my god, I already said it was a situationally appropriate kiss,” Steph said, tossing some popcorn at him. “I obviously would not have kissed him if I knew he would take it as a betrothal.”

“Obviously,” Jason said in a teasing voice.

“Oh my god,” Dick said, looking back and forth between them.

“Wait, who wanted to marry you first?” Duke said. “Who was a worse option than Jason?”

“Klarion the Witch Boy,” Jason said, a little gleefully.

Tim let out another choked sound and took another drink. “Wait, why didn’t you ask me?”

“Good question!” Dick said, glancing between them all. “Honestly should have been my first one.”

“You were off with the Titans,” Steph said. “And obviously Cass was my second choice, but Babs shot that down.”

“Ouch, third choice,” Duke said in an undertone to Jason.

“At least I stepped up,” Jason said. “Despite the frankly terrible proposal.”

“I was under a lot of pressure, okay,” Steph defended herself. “And also I like, barely knew you.”

“That totally makes it better, yeah,” Dick said. His astonishment had faded into clear amusement.

“Who all knows about this?” Tim asked. “Like. Are we the last to know?”

She could hear the undercurrent to his question, wondering if he was the last to know. She rolled her eyes. “Literally just Babs and Cass know.” She paused. “Unless you told someone?”

“It’s never come up,” Jason said.

“Okay, yeah, so just you guys. And Babs and Cass.”

Dick did the math first. “You two got legally married and somehow Bruce doesn’t know?”

Steph beamed at him. “And you thought I couldn’t be sneaky.”

Dick shook his head and raised his glass to her. “Congrats, then.”

“Thanks!”

*

Steph crashed in Cass’s room that night. She was off on a mission, and Steph technically had her own dedicated guest room, but she was way more comfortable in Cass’s bed. She had just tucked herself in when Tim came in, only stumbling a little as he settled on the bed beside her, perched on the edge like a gargoyle. She giggled a little.

“Steph,” Tim whispered in an urgent tone. “Steph, stop giggling, I have a serious question.”

“Yes?” Steph said, pushing down her amusement and peering out of her cocoon of blankets. The Manor tended to be chilly, and she liked to be cozy.

“Did you actually marry Jason?” Tim looked as though her answer was deeply important.

“Yeah,” Steph said. “Though like. It’s literally just a piece of paper.”

Was that a sigh of relief? She eyed him suspiciously. “You’re not crushing on me again, are you? Because we’re done-zo. Kaput.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course,” Tim said. “Better off as friends, absolutely agree. But. I just. Jason.”

“He’s not so bad,” Steph said. “Even if he’s a little pigheaded when it comes to literature. And grumpy when you wake him up too early.”

“Do you wake him up often?” Tim asked carefully.

“Just when I want to raid his snacks,” Steph mumbled. She was definitely past her limit and ready for sleep. “He always has better snacks than me.”

That relaxed something in Tim. “Oh. Good.”

“Why’s that?”

“I just… I was worried that you two were, you know. Involved.” From his tone, she could tell Tim thought that was a bad idea.

“Nope, just married,” Steph said. She stifled a yawn. “Why? Would it be so bad, if we were?”

Tim shrugged. He looked uncomfortable, so Steph tugged him down until he was lying next to her, her cocoon of blankets separating them. “I just don’t like the idea of you getting hurt,” he said, like that was some sort of confession. “And he’s never really… Jason doesn’t seem like the sort to settle down.”

“Aww, you care about me,” Steph sing-songed to Tim. “You want me to make good choiiices. You want the beeest for me.” She giggled.

Tim grinned back before being overtaken with giggles of his own. “I can’t believe you kissed Klarion.”

“Why is that so ridiculous?” Steph protested, but quickly realized that Tim had, mid-giggle, fallen asleep.

She shrugged and cuddled in to fall asleep herself.

A little while later she was woken by the bed dipping. She rolled over to see Jason kneeling beside her, giving Tim a questioning glance.

“He was worried about me,” Steph whispered, glancing at Tim fondly. “And wanted to make fun of me for kissing Klarion.”

“A noble pursuit,” Jason mumbled. “Dick did the same for me.”

“Teased you for kissing Klarion?” Steph whispered. Tim mumbled in his sleep and curled deeper into a ball.

“Worried.” Jason stared at the ceiling for a minute. “He thought that… well. Are you okay with this? We can still get an annulment."

Steph rolled her eyes. “Seems like a lot of trouble. Besides, I kinda like having you as a husband.” She snuggled into his shoulder.

She could feel how still he was. “You do?”

“Yeah. And also then I would have to return your anniversary present and I think you’re really going to dig it.”

“Dig it?” Jason’s shoulder shook. “I’m going to dig it?”

“Yeah, man,” Steph said. She grinned into his shoulder. He had great arms, she thought. Very muscular. She petted it to show her appreciation.

“I should go,” Jason mumbled.

“No, stay,” Steph said, wrapping her arm around his, clinging to him like a barnacle. “You’re cozy.”

Then she drifted off.

*

Steph woke up to a pounding headache and something tickling her foot. Her very ticklish foot. She kicked reflexively, cracking open her eyes.

Arm. Big arm. She was snuggled up against someone with big arms. Another blink and she remembered petting Jason’s arm as she fell asleep.

Yeah, she was still snuggled up against Jason. She felt stuck, though, and when she looked over her shoulder, Tim was starfished facedown on the other side of her, drooling on Cass’ favorite pillow. He took up a good portion of the bed, leaving Steph snuggled deep against Jason’s side.

It was cozy. She’d slept deeply, at least, and she normally ended up pushing her bedmates away so she could have room. Huh.

Okay, yeah, through the pounding in her head she remembered talking with Tim, then Jason coming in, and that explained how she ended up with a truly inexplicable set of bedfellows. That didn’t explain her ticklish foot.

She lifted her head to see Cass standing at the end of her own bed, looking put out.

“Morning,” Steph mumbled.

“No room,” Cass said. She looked exhausted; Steph knew she hadn’t been expected home midday. A glance at the window showed that was likely when it was. She had slept deeply.

“Who do you want me to kick out?” Steph asked, even though Cass was more than capable of kicking any and all of them out on her own.

Cass raised an eyebrow.

Steph got it. She poked Jason in the side, right where he was most ticklish, and then reached over and pulled the pillow out from under Tim’s head. “Up and at ‘em, boys,” she announced. “We’re getting evicted.”

Tim made a muffled sound into Cass’ mattress. Jason, to his credit, woke more gracefully, eyes slitting open and staring at the ceiling in the mute despair of the hungover before swiping his hand over his eyes and then looking over.

He blinked blankly at his bedmates. “So I didn’t dream that.”

“Dream what?” Tim mumbled, finally lifting his head to find Steph, Jason and Cass staring at him. “What’re you doing here?”

“It’s my room,” Cass said blandly.

“I was here first,” Steph reminded him.

“I found you sleeping with my wife, so I stayed to chaperone,” Jason said as blandly as Cass had. Steph let out a startled burst of laughter, and Tim shot up into a sitting position. “That was real?”

“Out,” Cass said again, firmer, in her someone will go through the window if I have to ask again tone,exhaustion writ on her posture, so they all climbed out of her bed and piled into the hall, though Steph stopped to give her a hug and to whisper a quick, “They took it well!” before following the boys downstairs.

“Did we leave Damian on the couch?” Steph asked, peering into the family room as they passed it.

“I took him to bed,” Jason said.

Steph paused at the mental image of Jason carrying a sleepy Damian to bed. “Did he let you tuck him in?”

“I just kinda dumped him on his bed and ran,” Jason confessed. “Didn’t know if he had shuriken under his pillow or something.”

“Right call, he does,” Tim said in a don’t ask how I know tone.

“Good to know,” Steph said. She stepped into the kitchen, where Alfred was frying eggs. There were hashbrowns already piled on a platter in the center of the island. “Alfred, you miracle worker, I love you.”

“Thank you, Miss Stephanie.” She could hear Alfred’s smile, though he didn’t turn around.

Dick joined them a few minutes later, wearing workout clothes and clearly coming straight from a training session. Steph took a moment to relish how comfortable they all were together. She smiled into her plate of greasy food.

“Damian’s out walking his turkey,” Dick said conspiratorially. “It’s really cute.”

She happily trooped outside to take even more adorable pictures of Damian.

*

“Who’s your favorite poet?”

Jason looked up. He was sitting on the couch, cleaning his weapons. He had a whole ritual for it, Steph had noticed. He lined everything up and meticulously cleaned each part, breaking down his guns one by one to make sure they were in their best condition.

She wondered if she maybe spent too much time at Jason’s apartment.

“Why?”

Steph shrugged. She was working on another short paper for her Western Lit class, and the thought had struck her. “Just curious.”

Jason paused, thinking. Finally he said, “Christina Rossetti.”

Steph hadn’t expected that one. “Not what I would have thought.”

“What would you have thought?” Jason said. Not defensively, but genuinely curious.

“I don’t know,” Steph said. “Given your devotion to Austen, I would have thought one of the big names. Dante or Milton or something.”

“I don’t want to read about hell,” Jason said, eyeing her narrowly, clearly having read into her assumptions about his favorite poetry topics.

Steph flipped through her anthology, skimming through the index until she found… yep, Christina Rossetti was in it. She flipped to her poems. Read a few. Raised her eyebrow at Jason.

“What?” he said defensively.

“I mean, I get it,” she said, “but you can’t make fun of me for thinking you’d like Milton when this is what you chose instead.”

“What’s your favorite, then?” Jason asked. The defensive tone dropped, and he sounded genuinely curious.

“Pablo Neruda,” Steph said without hesitation.

Unlike her, Jason didn’t need to look up her favorite. “Oh,” he said, raising an eyebrow. “Not what I would have picked for you, either, but… I can see it.”

Steph thought she would remember the way he smiled at her then, soft and understanding, for a long, long time.

*

“You are happy.”

Steph looked over at Cass, surprised. The observation came out of nowhere. They were just sitting there on the side of a skyscraper, enjoying the night air. “I mean, yeah, I have a slurpee,” she said, waving her cup in Cass’s direction. “Hard to be unhappy with a slurpee.”

Cass shook her head. “No. I mean…” She waved her hand. “Overall.”

Steph hadn’t thought about her overall happiness in a while. “I mean… Things are going pretty good.”

Cass gave her a look.

Steph felt a lot of things bubbling up to say, but what came out was, “I’ve been spending a lot of time with Jason.”

“And that makes you happy?”

Steph found herself nodding. “Yeah. Yeah, he makes me happy.”

Cass nodded firmly. “You two are good for each other.”

“Yeah, I..” Steph paused. “We’re not like, together, you know.”

Cass gave her that look again.

Steph said, “We’re not!”

Cass said, “I know. It’s dumb.”

“Friendship is not dumb,” Steph said, though… “Wait, did Jason say something?”

“He did not say anything, no,” Cass said.

“So you’re saying… does he want to be involved with me?”

“You spent time together. What do you think?” Cass’ voice was patient, but Steph got the distinct impression that Cass was teasing her.

“I think…” Steph trailed off, actually thinking about Jason. About how she felt when she was with him. About how comfortable she’d become in his apartment. The day before, she’d fallen asleep on his couch, and when she woke up, there was a cozy blanket draped over her. A new one, even, because the first few times she’d been there, she’d complained about his lack of cozy blankets, but then some had appeared.

Had he… had he bought them for her?

She thought about that night at the Manor, when they’d drunkenly confessed their marriage to the other Robins, and how she’d slept curled up against him. About all the moments they’d shared, and how…. How she felt about him.

“Oh,” she said blankly. “When did that happen?”

Cass pushed her shoulder lightly. “A while ago.”

“Huh.” Steph turned the idea around in her mind. She’d fallen in love with Jason and hadn’t even noticed. I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where, indeed.

Cass nodded at her. “Finally.”

“Hey, you couldn’t have known that long,” Steph said.

“Tell yourself that.”

Steph did the only thing she could and used her straw to blow a faceful of slurpee at Cass, laughing as Cass lifted to her feet and chased after her. They hadn’t played rooftop tag in a while, and Steph loved the feel of wind in her hair as she tried to keep away.

*

The problem was, now that Steph actually knew about her feelings, she suddenly felt awkward around Jason. It was like she was worried that he would look at her and know what she was thinking.

Ridiculous.

She’d been around him with these feelings for… well, it had to be weeks. Maybe months. She really wasn’t sure when it had tipped into something more for her.

She found herself hesitating before heading to his apartment. Bumping into him just on patrol, when the threat of violence breaking out kept the conversation light and focused on work. She found herself trying to figure out the perfect way to share her feelings, to breaking this.. this one-sided impasse that she’d found herself in.

Stephanie had never once hesitated to share her feelings with someone. She’d always considered herself an open book, had firmly believed that following her heart meant jumping in with both feet and eyes wide open, that things would work out as they were meant to.

But this…

This felt too important.

This wasn’t a silly little crush. This was something deeper and wilder and stronger, and she thought that if she messed this up, it would break her heart.

So she put it off.

But she wasn’t quite capable of hiding her feelings, now that she knew what they truly were, so avoiding Jason was the only viable path.

*

The only problem with the whole hesitation plan was that it didn’t take Jason Todd into account.

Steph came home from class the next day to find a gift bag tied with a Happy Anniversary helium balloon on her doorstep.

She picked it up, a sliver of guilt overtaking the butterflies at the thought of Jason picking out a present for her.

It’s probably something silly, she firmly reminded herself, but she took the gift inside before she opened it. She looked inside.

It was a book. A beautifully bound, clearly antique copy of Pablo Neruda’s Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair. She traced her finger across the pink dust jacket, and opened it, finding that it was signed.

One day, she’d been poking through Jason’s bookshelves, admiring some of the first editions he had collected. “It’s nothing compared to Bruce’s library,” he’d said, then grinned somewhat rakishly in her direction. “Well, some of it might have originated there, but shh.”

“Your secret’s safe with me,” she’d laughed. “All of my books came from the thrift store. Only battered paperbacks for me.”

Jason gestured towards the lower shelves, where a good portion of the books showed wear.. “Clearly an excellent source.”

She clutched the book, then tucked it back into the bag and headed to Jason’s apartment, pausing only to stop by her closet to grab his gift, now seemingly too silly, given the thought he’d put into his.

She knocked on his door instead of just letting herself in.

Jason opened it, stepping aside to let her in. He had a slightly wary look, like he wasn’t quite sure where they stood anymore, and that more than anything made Steph want to shrivel up because of the way she’d iced him out over the last week.

“I got your present,” she said, waving the bag around like it didn’t contain something she wanted to cherish.

“You didn’t like it?” Jason guessed.

Steph shook her head. “It’s an incredible present, but you fucked up the timing. It’s clearly a paper gift.”

He blinked at her. She handed him back the bag. “So give it back to me on our one year anniversary, instead of six months. So I can cherish it for real.”

“Steph,” Jason said. “Those silly guidelines don’t mean anything.”

Steph shook her head. “I’m trying to do something here, just let me.” She took in a deep breath. “I know I’ve been distant this past week.”

“I’m sorry that I slept with you,” Jason started again, and Steph shook her head. Had he been worrying about that? She was an asshole, she should have just dove in headfirst like always, no matter how important this was. “That’s not the issue.”

“Then what is?”

Steph took a deep breath, held out her own anniversary present, and began, “In vain I have struggled–”

“No,” Jason said, a smile overtaking his features.

“Hush, you’re ruining my flow,” Steph hissed, then straightened her shoulders and continued, “It will not do! My feelings will not be repressed.”

Jason took a step forward, but Steph took a step back, bumping against his closed front door. Dimly she was aware of his present slipping from her fingers and hitting the floor. She paid it no mind and continued, watching Jason’s eyes darken with every word. “You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”

By the time she managed to say the final two words, voice jumping nervously on love, Jason was crowded around her, head tilted down towards hers. His mouth was inches away. Her eyes darted to it, then back to meet Jason’s eyes, which bore into her with an intensity she had yet to see out of him.

“Jason?” she managed. She was conscious of every breath.

“You have bewitched me body and soul,” he murmured in response, one hand sliding to her hip. His thumb slid under the hem of her sweatshirt, and she shuddered. She could feel the heat of his fingers burning into her skin. She thought she might combust.

Then he lowered his head, so slowly it felt like torture, until his mouth brushed against hers in the gentlest of kisses.

It was soft and hot and made something in Steph ache so, so sweetly. Nothing at all like the kisses she’d imagined, but somehow better.

She could spend the rest of her life inside this kiss.

“Can’t believe you quoted Darcy back at me,” she mumbled against his mouth when he finally pulled back. “Thought you were a Lizzie for sure.”

“Can’t believe you couldn’t be bothered to put on the wet shirt,” Jason mumbled back.

Steph went up on her tiptoes, brushed her mouth against the shell of his ear. “Maybe for your birthday.”

Then they didn’t have much to say at all.

*

Jason laughed and laughed when he saw the present she’d picked out.

“We were on such different wavelengths,” she said, looking between the pair of bright underwear and the book of love poetry.

“Makes sense, though,” he said thoughtfully.

“For us, yeah, it does.”

*

There was some debate between them on how to break the news to the rest of the Bats that their marriage had tipped over to real.

Steph was pretty pleased with what they’d come up with.

She clued Alfred in, just so that he could guilt everyone into attending the same brunch. It was at the Manor, with everyone crowded around the dining room table. Most of them were wearing casual workout clothes; Steph figured almost everyone planned to head into the Cave afterwards for a workout.

Recruiting Alfred also had the advantage of allowing him to deliver the pièce de résistance: a meticulously designed wedding invitation, carefully backdated for the actual date of their marriage. Bruce was a detective, he’d notice.

Steph and Jason had not actually given anyone else a heads up that they were dropping this bomb on Bruce. It meant that they got to see the looks of actual delight as everyone realized what, precisely, Bruce was reading that had clearly caused him to go still, like he had just slipped on the cowl.

Well, almost everyone. Damian looked deeply confused.

“Is this a joke?” Bruce asked after a long moment. There was a hint of the Bat in his voice, but mostly, confusion, like he didn’t quite get the punchline.

“Nope,” Steph said.

He lifted his eyes from the paper to look at them. They’d sat beside each other, and Jason carefully curled his hand over Steph’s.

“It’s dated for almost seven months ago.”

“Yeah, guess you just missed it,” Jason said. He frowned at Steph’s hand. “Wait, do I need to get you a ring? Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I don’t want a ring,” Steph said, crinkling her nose, thinking of how easily she’d lose it and how annoying it would be to take one off every time she wanted to punch someone.

“I’m going to get you a ring,” Jason said stubbornly.

“Doesn’t matter, I won’t wear it,” Steph said.

Bruce looked back down at the wedding invitation in his hand, and then at the two of them, and said in a tone of absolute bafflement, “What the fuck?”

Steph let out a bright burst of laughter, tucking her head against Jason’s shoulder as she managed, “We befuddled the Batman!”

Damian looked at them, then snapped the invitation out of Bruce’s hand. His brow furrowed. Tim patted him on the hand and said, “I know, little buddy, it’s super weird to the rest of us, too.”

“It’s not super weird,” Steph protested.

“I mean…” Duke said. “It kinda is.”

“I think it makes sense,” Dick said. “They’re cute.”

“But… how?” Damian said.

“Babs,” Steph said. “It was her idea.”

“Don’t put this on me,” Babs said, though honestly, she looked a little pleased with herself that her spur of the moment plan had turned into this.

“Sometimes,” Jason told Damian, like he was telling a bedtime story, “A young vigilante makes terrible kissing decisions and has to be rescued from a child marriage in an alternate dimension.”

Steph could not be held responsible for the food fight that happened. It was like she was possessed, grabbing a handful of eggs and smearing them in Jason’s hair. Damian took that as permission to fling food at Jason as well, and… chaos descended.

She was pretty sure she even saw Bruce flick a piece of cantalope. She was laughing too hard at that point to even call him out.

She didn’t even mind when Alfred came back and made them all clean up the mess, Bruce included. She might have snuck a kiss on the tip of Jason’s nose as they cleaned under the table, ignoring the gagging sounds Tim and Damian directed their way.

Steph found herself planning out what gift she was going to send Klarion, as thanks for being the catalyst that united her and Jason. She was thankful, because the feeling that curled through her when she looked at him?

She couldn’t imagine life without it.

Couldn’t imagine life without him.