(no subject)

[prodigaljaybird]

Jason's lungs feel like they're trying to turn inside out.

He takes a rattling breath through his teeth, gives up and curls his lip, lets the air blossom full and sweet in his lungs. It serves to stay the faint buzzing between his ears, but he's still dizzy, frustration and rage and a hurt he's too keyed up to realize is childish warring in his head and heart.

Fucking Batgirl. Fucking Robin. It's bad enough that Tim is gone and they're on the island instead, creeping in his periphery far more often than his temper can endure, and now she's in his class? Both of them, with Bucky? Jason could have pulled the parallel bars down with his bare hands this morning. He settled for oneupping her in every exercise he could, and in cardio, running harder, faster, better, pushing himself to the point of exhaustion and then harder still.

He can't tell if she's impressed or not. He doesn't care, and it doesn't mean a damn thing that he keeps looking at her, that he can't hold any expression on his face that isn't a sneer or snarl. She can't touch him in class, not in combat or in quality, and if she thinks she can come in just to spy on him, to see if he's 'doing anything she has to stop,' she's fucking wrong.

Fury renewed, Jason unfurls his hands and takes a step over the sand, eyes on Steph where she's detached from the rest of the dispersing students.

Comments

[prodigaljaybird]

Jason exhales a breath so stale he must've been holding it this whole time, his expression tight when he looks back at Bucky, though not in a bad way. It's such a relief to hear it's either cry or jump on him, but as Bucky's not really one for hugging, Jason settles for a light shove to his shoulder. "Thanks," he says. Bucky might be the only one who believes in him, but that's enough.

[onlyapassenger]

Bucky arches an eyebrow.

"You do fall off the deep end, though, those kids aren't the ones you'll have to worry about," he replies, and though there's a slight wryness to his tone, there's truth to what he's saying. Jason's more or less been his responsibility since the kid fell from the sky a year ago, for better or for worse. "Just so we're clear."

[prodigaljaybird]

Jason should probably be more unnerved by that, but with Bucky he's learned to take it as a matter of course. "Better you than any of them," he says, watching Stephanie at last begin to drift away.

"Only one that really fucks me up is him, anyway," he admits in a quieter voice. "And the Joker. But you said you'd kill him." Jason looks at him, harder than he means to, the conversation taking a turn he'd not meant to steer it, but now that he's here he can't stop. "Do you still mean that?"

[onlyapassenger]

He's worn a lot of hats over the years, but even when he was a soldier, he was the one they sent in to do the real dirty work. Neutralizing threats before they have a chance to act used to be his job, and though the circumstances of the island are different, though they are not in the middle of a war zone, though the shield sitting in his room would have him take a less lethal stance, the Joker wouldn't walk on these shores for long.

Bucky holds Jason's gaze. "I do."

[prodigaljaybird]

Jason's a child of his world, the thoughts that should frighten him a comfort, the promises that should be sinister reassuring instead. He grins and shakes the last of his ire from his shoulders.

"Then it'll be okay. I'll leave'em alone, long as they leave me alone."