prodigaljaybird | (no subject)

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batpocalypse

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It's strange to be outside again after so long spent indoors; first the endless dark of Rapture, and then the shuttered quiet of his own bedroom. He's seen the sunlight in bits and snatches, trickles through the slatted walls of the hut and shining through the door, but no more than that.

It feels good. Warm on his face when Jason tips it skyward, comforting. It feels good to know that in spite of the whole world ending, the sun and sky, the trees, the island is still here.

And going on as normal, if the sounds that greet Jason as he shuffles down the boardwalk are any indication. That feels good, too, and Jason feels better for every step he takes. In many ways, he feels like he's been ill, like it was a fever that's kept him indoors and not his own insurmountable dread. He feels raw and worn out, too hollow, but under the sun again...Bucky was right. He feels better.

He has no aim for where he's walking. There are faces he wants to see, but even now, he's afraid to seek them out. What will they say to him, what have they heard, or worse, what if they didn't care to notice he was gone?

The familiar hurt turns in Jason's stomach, and he takes the path not to the Compound, but down to Robin's Gym. Outside of class, the place is like a graveyard, but the wooden structures are familiar and sunlit. As ever when he's here alone, Jason thinks of Tim, and he smiles a little. "Way to miss the fireworks, little brother."

[ooc: wide open to familiar faces~ find him at Robin's Gym or on the way there]

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The past few days have all been a sleepless blur. Watching Tony while he rests, listening to the darkness envelop the hut, fold the siblings close. His nonsensical babble has become her white noise, but there are times now when she thinks that it'll get better, that it'll wear away, and maybe Tony will learn to emerge again, as strong as he ever was. (He's been here. He's been here, and he's survived— no, thrived in the wake of it all, nothing capable of weighing him down for long.) Times when she feels fine leaving him for an hour or two, darting through the trees, listening for voices and warding them away with nonstop movement. Times when she runs, not knowing where she goes, or who she might find in her path, all the while her heart thrumming with the knowledge that she needs to get back, soon.

It's not good to abandon people.

But her lungs scream for air today as she runs down the beaten path, a figure racing by her side in a blur. A familiar one, dragging her to a stop, eyes wide as she stares.

She'd thought—

"You're back," she says, and it's too stunned to sound like an accusation, like a plea, like anything at all. Just white.

Like hope.

Edited 2011-11-21 04:18 (UTC)

She's been looking for him.

It's a recurring theme in Katniss' life, or at least it's beginning to be. At the very moment that she begins to trust and care about somebody, they have to go and die or disappear on her. Boggs is the greatest example of this. And Finnick. Oh, and Peeta? Peeta's crazy, back home. Absolutely insane. And he'll never be right. They took him and they made him like that.

So it's no doubt that after a couple of days of Jason being gone, Katniss' mind begins to supply its own bits of information on what could have happened to him. Of course, she's been told the official reasons for everything, but this paranoia is something that isn't easily combated.

(Damn her for caring. Damn him for making her care.)

Once again, Katniss combs the island for him like it's part of her daily routine, but she's beginning to lose hope. She's a good tracker and always has been, but Jason moves like a shadow. If he doesn't want to be found, he won't be.

Oh, but there he is, standing amongst the rickety frames like he's been there all along. Katniss moves silently, arms crossing against her chest when she finally approaches.

"Hi."

Stephanie's running. She's doing it a lot lately, even more so since Bruce showed up and sent everything into a tailspin. It's a chance to clear her head, there's something meditative about the way the world can narrow to her breath, the pound of feet on the ground, and the next step. Puts her worries about Damian, about Jason, about this whole damn place, out of her mind for as long as it takes to do a circuit.

Along the path, she turns to the gym to do a set of reps before heading the rest of the way home. Is slowing down when she sees-

"Jason." She lets out a breath that's all relief. After another day of watching for him to come out of Rapture she'd given up her post, trusting that she'd see him when- if- when he came back up. And here he is. "Oh, I'm glad to see you."

Jason cuts a glance at her. She's so small, for all her urgency her footballs on the path were muted, and it's not until she speaks that Jason truly bothers to register that she's there. It's far from his usual, vigilant practice, but he figures...if certain capes want to sneak up on him today, he's in no shape to stop them.

"I never left," he says. "I was just." Pushing a hand through his hair, Jason sighs. All that time to think, and he's yet to come up with anything like an excuse. "I needed some time."

Never left. It's all that she needs to fly in his direction, hair wild in the wind and thin arms wrapping around him as well as she's able, with more strength than she can afford to give, but if her heart isn't full to burst right now, then she doesn't know what it is, or where to place all of the energy. She's not a fool. Doesn't miss the way that he looks older, somehow, worn and weathered, but she brushes her lips fleetingly against his cheek, glad for his return. Wanting to shield him, no matter how ridiculous it might seem for a girl so slight and seemingly fragile to care for the only boy who once held her sane.

"S'okay," she breathes, resting on the ground again, hands on his arms and pulling back to get a better look at him, making sure that he's fine. "Everyone needs time. We're not going anywhere, yeah?"

Her smile, tentative, coaxes its way back to her lips with the hesitance of bending reeds.

"Hey," he returns, and if he feels surprise that he hadn't heard her approach, Jason's too tired to show it. Instinctively, he tucks his own arms around himself, a taller, broader mirror of Katniss until he realizes and makes them fall.

"Sorry," he says. He'd sent word that he was okay, but he hadn't meant to be away for so long, hadn't meant to lose himself for so long, and she looks...Katniss looks how she always looks. Sad. Weary. Betrayed, and this time it's his fault. "I'm sorry."

"Why?" Jason asks, his heart hammering so suddenly that he's sick with it. His system is spent and unwilling to entertain yet another surge of adrenaline, and yet it comes, because Batgirl is running, and she's out of breath, and not for one second does Jason consider that she might simply be glad to see him.

He'd been sitting, but now Jason's on his feet, fine tremors in his hands. "Did something happen?"

Katniss has no interest in dictating other people's lives. That was the Capitol's thing all along, and the thought of doing so left a bad taste in her mouth. The apology doesn't get rid of the times when her mind had helpfully supplied images of him dead (she's been underground and knows full well what it's like), though. Rationally, she knows that this kind of anxiety is stupid but District 13 had bred it into her. It's much like the feeling of going stir crazy, except worse.

"I kept thinking that something bad had happened to you," she says quietly, also somehow knowing that if Jason had found things so overwhelming that he'd had to run, then things must have gotten very bad. She's felt that before, too - being cornered, desperate. Hiding out in tiny closets or other dark, concealed spaces. Not for the first time, Katniss realizes just how alike they are.

Her first thought is always to run, too.

She moves closer, shifting the weight of the bow that she's never without on one shoulder. Step by step, giving him plenty of time to go away if he wants to. Katniss doesn't stop until she's in front of him. Until she awkwardly wraps her arms around him. She's not a huggy person, not at all inclined with physical affection, but sometimes it's needed and she knows that more than most.

"No," he sighs, and though the sun is more than enough to warm him, he feels for a moment too cool when he's released. Right again, he thinks of Bucky. Only one new friend in and he feels closer to his old self than he has in days.

He smiles back, just as small, but he means it. "What day is it?"

"Friday," Effy breathes, and for all that she should be alarmed, perhaps, by this level of disorientation from Jason, she understands. She heard it, before, in the soft words offered in the dark of the cave, in the deep tone of his voice as he carried her out to the beach. And though she wishes that he never had to see her that way, in a deepest hour not meant for strangers, Effy's loath to argue about the beginning of any friendship. So long as it flourishes. So long as it remains strong, as he's been for her so many times now, and as she plans to be for him in turn. She can smile, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, tempted to launch herself at him again, though she refrains.

She just— can't lose him. Not this one. Not this friendship, steady as a rock.

Momentarily, her eyes skirt over the ground. It might not be her place. It might not.

"Is it getting better?" she asks, the question too bare, plain. Effy reaches out for his shoulder, rests her hand there. Still burning, she thinks, but it's a little smaller now, and needs air to breathe. "If I can... if I can help."

He's terrified.

It's a thought that registers at the back of his mind, dim and unimportant. He's been terrified for days, he's lived with it, he's used to it, and it takes the sudden tickle of her hair at his throat for him to realize that it's different this time.

Simpler. It's not his father that he fears or his own cracking mind, it's the thought that he could be on the other side of this, that he could feel whole again, that she wants to help him there. He just needs to jump.

Jason breaks all at once, his arms coming up around her and his head tucked low, forehead pressed to the bony knob of her shoulder. "It did," he exhales, "I got lost in it, but I'm out." He draws an unsteady breath. "I'm out."

He'd been so caught up in Teddy being back, that for the first few days (where he'd skipped a few classes himself), Billy hadn't even noticed Jason wasn't around. Not until he'd been informed that Jason was hiding out, that something was going on with him down in Rapture. After seeing the bruises all over Teddy from his run-in down in Rapture, the very thought of the city makes his stomach turn.

He hasn't gone seeking Jason out yet, mostly because he's not sure he's wanted yet. But Billy spots him ducking off the path, and he speeds up to catch up to Jason before he loses him in the trees. "Jason!"

Zuko doesn't remember the last time he saw Jason.

He knows it's been a while, but it's not like they ever hung out every day, or anything. It was a relief, at least, to hear from Captain Barnes that Jason was still around, just...not available. After his uncle and his sister, and then two days of thinking his boss at the club was gone, Zuko really doesn't want to deal with the disappearance of another important person right now.

He's been checking places periodically. Places he knows Jason might show up. He hasn't been pushing, trying to see him at home or anything, because Zuko of all people understands the need to just be alone sometimes. He stops by Robin's Gym again today, and suddenly there he is, like he never left, like he hasn't been hiding away at all.

Zuko doesn't say anything at first, knowing Jason will realize he's there even if he doesn't make a sound. He just leans against one of the unfamiliar pieces of equipment and watches.

"No, no, it's okay." She stops and brings her hands up, voice pitched to calm. "Everything's fine. I'm just glad to see you, topside and in one piece. I was worried."

"Jason Todd!" Coraline yelled, approaching Jason with a face like thunder. Coraline looked like she was about to hit him or yell at him or worse question him forever but what she did instead really should not have surprised anyone. Coraline hugged Jason tightly. She wasn't letting go, she was never letting go. "You're back. You were gone, you disappeared and I was so scared that you were gone. So, you're not allowed to do that again Mister or I'll- I'll tell on you and then you'll get grounded. And being grounded sucks so you don't want that. So you can't disappear."

Too tired to jump at the sudden shout, Jason turns, smiling faintly at the sight of Billy coming down the path. Natalia had mentioned something about a different boyfriend arriving, and with no small amount of relief. Despite his sudden rush of nerves, Jason looks forward to discovering what all that's about, though he thinks he knows where her relief came from. Billy's last boyfriend was a douche.

"Hey," he calls back, pausing.

Occupied with rubbing absently at the old scar in his scalp, Jason's slow to realize he's no longer alone. It should trouble him, this sudden loss of vigilance, but he thinks maybe he's finally burnt out on giving a shit. If one of the other birds on the island want to sneak up on him and pick a fight, they'll find him whether he waits for it or not.

Zuko, though....he's a familiar, friendly face, and if he's in any way unwelcome, it's only because Jason's not sure what to say for himself. "Hey," he finally calls.

Jason holds his ground. He's not happy that she's angry with him, but he's not surprised, either, and it's not until she throws her arms around him that he loses his nerve.

"Sorry," he says, hands coming up awkwardly at first, and then his arms are around her. "I didn't mean to scare anybody, I - " He pauses, huffing out a laugh. "I don't think I can get grounded."

It feels like she's screamed his name. She can hear it in her mind, a sort of frantic mantra that echoes in the damp jungle air, but emotion has seized her throat and vocal cords and the only actual sound is the hard slap of her sneakers against the hollow planks of the boardwalk. When she hits him, it's at full speed, enough to nearly knock them both over, arms instantly tight around his neck, rubber soles of her shoes squeaking against bamboo as she pushes up on tiptoe.

"Are you okay?" she hastily asks a moment later, small hands framing his face as she leans back just enough to get a proper look at him. Her fingertips are trembling just a little, but for the first time in days she feels like she can finally breathe.

Coraline doesn't let go, not when he put his hands up or his arms around her. She's not letting him go not ever. She'd drawn him, the light in the dark and that was what he was to her.

"You can too," Coraline argued, pressing her face against his chest. Jason was one of the few people on the island taller than her and it made hugging him all that easier. She didn't have to crouch for once. "I'll find someone and then they'll come and ground you and you won't be able to do anything fun and it's rubbish. Really, really rubbish."

Coraline sighed, looking up at him curiously with her eyes suspiciously red. She wasn't going to cry. "Where were you?"

She comes at him like a tiny rocket, so present and so close so suddenly that for a moment, Jason's not sure he hasn't imagined her, but then her arms are around his neck, the familiar scent of her hair in his nose, and Jason grips her tight.

He doesn't feel steady yet, but he's stubborn, not releasing her even for the quick journey to the edge of the boardwalk where he can sit, Lux gathered up in his lap. "I'm okay," he says, letting her look, letting her see that he's unharmed. "I missed you."

"Yeah," says Jason, shifting beneath the feather weight of her hand. It's the same discomfort that's kept him indoors for a week, hiding like a scolded child away where no one could see his shame. "It's hard to explain."

He isn't even sure he wants to try, but for her, Jason will. "My dad came. Things are weird with us." Moving away, Jason wraps his fingers around the familiar beams of the parallel bars and pulls himself up to perch. "I got used to this place just being mine."

"Okay," Jason returns, blinking at her for a long and silent moment before he sits down again. His cheeks are hot and tingling, soaked red with an embarrassed flush he's surprised he has the energy to muster. He doesn't wonder that she's worried - touchy as he is about being called mad, Jason knows he's earned it.

"It's fine," he adds with parroted conviction. "We didn't fight."

"Sorry," she says, suddenly apologetic. About making him worry and think there was something wrong. About worrying in the first place, when they haven't exactly been on the steadiest ground, and maybe it wasn't her place. Which is stupid, she's not going to apologize for caring about someone, but maybe she should be sorry about thinking between him and Bruce someone might get blown up.

"I heard it went..." She shakes her head. Physically unharmed is not the same as things going well. "That it could have gone worse." A pause and then. "I wanted to come down, but they shut off access, didn't want anyone going down. The ITF, I mean. And well, Bruce, but screw him."

Guilt, that's what this is. Wonderful.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you'd actually been hiding," Grace says when she sees Jason on the path. She can't remember the last time she saw him, come to think of it; it's been weeks. Of course, it's not as if she couldn't have gone looking for him, asked around to see if anyone had seen him.

But with that had come the chance that he wasn't around anymore. That he'd disappeared, as people often did on the island. It had been her fear of that, perhaps, that had kept her from inquiring after him for so long.

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