(no subject)

[prodigaljaybird]

He lost him.

Didn't he?

Does anyone ever really lose the goddamn Batman?

Pale and shaky, Jason casts another look over his shoulder. There's no one there, but then, that's what Bruce might want him to think. Perhaps he's slunk back into the shadows, perhaps he's watching, waiting for Jason to show his hand.

Well, here it is. He hasn't fucking got one, left his apartment like an idiot in minimal gear so he could meet Allison, a half dozen weapons and his gauntlets all that he has on him - a handful of nothing all that might stand between Jason and a deeper cut.

Lifting a trembling hand, he palms at the scar on his throat, only to rip his hand away again. If Bruce is watching, Jason doesn't mean to let him see him suffer. Darting down the next corner and then another, Jason doubles back, takes a second and third rooftop, then darts down another alley. His route is spinning, and Jason's spinning with it, eyes half to crossing and his cheeks green when he rounds another corner, barking in surprise when he runs into -

"Allison." Fuck. Bruce can't see her, can't know what she means, but she's here and if he's watching there's no escaping it. Jason tries and fails to school his expression into something less nauseated, croaking her name again. "Allison."

Comments

[theresalwayshope]

She had a date to see Jason for lunch. Work was a mess that day: Mrs. Livingston was short with everyone thanks to her bad back, sadly was out with food poisoning again, and she was backed up on filing thanks to her exhausting nightly routine.

But she could deal with it, because Jason was going to meet her for lunch. She was hoping he knew somewhere isolated they could go...grab some sandwiches, hop on his bike...

She saw him just as she was leaving the lab: tall, lean, and rough looking, bright blue eyes hard and wary as he looked around.

"...Dad?...Dad!"

Allison had gone right after him, but Chris Argent was gone when she reached the spot he was standing. She'd pushed past an older couple out walking, a couple of teenage boys...and he was gone.

He'd been right there...

She was walking, blindly, aching and afraid, waiting for another glimpse of him, some sign that she hadn't imagined it when she nearly collided with a wall of warm flesh that grunted her name like she heard members of the local gangs whisper the name she was starting to answer to on the streets every night.

She opened her mouth to apologize when she realized who it was. For a second she could only stare, eyes glassy in features blank with shock, then she was reaching for him...hands on his arms, ready to pull him close...

"Jason..."

She got as far as curling her hands around his forearms when his expression registered: horror, shock, something noisome.

Something was very wrong.

[prodigaljaybird]

It's sheer stubbornness that keeps Jason on his feet, and he meets her eyes determined to banish the shine from his own, only to feel his mouth drop open.

"What is it?" he asks, looking over his shoulder yet again. She couldn't have seen him, he wouldn't have let her, so what's made her look like this. Bats be damned, Jason slides his hands up to her shoulders, taking in her flushed cheeks, the breaths that ripple through her entire torso. "Are you okay? Is someone chasing you?"

[theresalwayshope]

"...I saw my dad."

She didn't mean to, but the devastation was in her tone, the loss that came from seeing him, feeling suddenly whole again, and then losing him in the crowd. Not even a crowd, a scattering of people.

She'd called out. He had to have heard her, he'd never run from her. Even when he'd surrendered himself to Jennifer Blake, he'd brought her. He'd cuffed her to the wall, knocked Isaac out, but he'd left her with something.

"I saw my dad." she said it again, and the rest of the statement came in silence, in the way her voice cracked and the glassy sheen in her eyes surged up, trembling, glittering in full-fledged tears.

And then he was gone.

She wanted to fall against Jason. She wanted those strong arms to wrap her up and tell her it was okay, that they would find him together, that they would raze the city to the ground, side by side, until she had her father back.

But she couldn't, because something was wrong.

The most she let herself have was to reach up to where his hands lay on her shoulders. Covering both with her own, she held on for dear life, offering and drawing comfort as she ignored the wetness threatening to spill from her own eyes, the cold knot of abandonment that promised to sap away all the strength she had.

She met his gaze, squeezed his hands, and searched his features for an answer.

"Forget about me: are you okay? You look sick, Jace, what's going on?"

[prodigaljaybird]

I saw my dad.

It's the last thing Jason expects to hear, and his stomach rolls, a hard swallow and a refusal to look like a tool in front of Allison all that keeps it down. "I saw - " he says, hesitating, "Somebody, too."

Only the retreating flap of the cowl as Bruce disappeared, but Jason would know it anywhere, had pursued him for long moments before he remembered himself and starting running the other way. Her eyes are wet, pulling Jason back to himself with a start, and he very nearly grabs her up and fires a line, except he can't.

There's never been a worse day to give away his night job.

"You really saw your dad?" he asks, amazed at the coincidence.

[theresalwayshope]

Allison nodded, her features crumbling just a little as she finally moved closer, letting her head fall forward to rest against his chest. With his hands on her shoulders, the scent of him filling her lungs, she just wanted to curl up and be comforted. This close, she felt safe and borderline content, she felt shut off from the world where she had her father, her family back for an instant only to lose it again, but the feeling was just an illusion. She couldn't--

Just an illusion.

That hunter's instinct was Chris Argent's voice in her mind, so strong and so clear that, for a moment, she felt him close again.

Sniffling, Allison lifted her head, blinking so the tears fell. She wiped them off her cheeks, hard, almost angry, as she drew back in on herself to stand tall again. She wasn't weak, she didn't need to be comforted or kept safe. She could take care of herself, and comfort...it was a luxury.

One she could indulge in later.

"I think I saw my dad." she amended, clearing her throat. "I mean...I called out, I yelled, and he didn't come towards me. He just vanished, that's not like him...and there are trickster entities out there that can make you see things..."

She trailed off, eyes flicking over his face as she reached up to run her fingers through his hair, hand sliding down to cradle his cheek.

"Who did you see?"

[prodigaljaybird]

Jason balks at the question, mouth still hanging uselessly open until she touches his cheek. "You won't believe me," he says, expression crumpling for a moment as his heart battles itself, as torn between hoping Bruce is and isn't here as his feet had been running after him. "Somebody from my world. He's - "

Breaking off, Jason shoves determinedly at his eyes, far worse than Allison at feigning a strength he doesn't feel, not when Bruce could be here, not when he has no plan, no idea what to do. He can't tell her it's his father, not even when she's told him she'd seen her own. It's just too dangerous. "He's called the Batman."

[theresalwayshope]

The way Jason scrubbed furiously at his eyes hardened something in Allison. That stillness, that darkness she's learned to draw on filled her, cool and steady as she gathered his face between her hands.

For the moment, her own confusion was forgotten. For the moment, all that mattered was that he was in pain, her own was irrelevant. For the moment, she--

...Batman?!?

Allison's jaw dropped open. For one split second, she doubted him. For the span of a heartbeat, she was certain he'd lost his mind, but looking into his eyes promptly made her forget she ever questioned his sanity, even for that so brief instant.

Because Allison didn't know comics, but she knew who Batman was. Everyone knows who Batman is...Stiles Stilinski is one of her best friends, she knows more about DC comics than she ever really wanted to.

And the things she saw in Jason's face...

With a small, resigned and fearful sigh, she shut her eyes, drawing him close so she could rest her forehead against his.

Bruce Wayne was real. Jason was from Gotham City...and something about Wayne disturbed Jason so deeply, so profoundly, it made Allison ache for him bone-deep.

"Omigod, I'm gonna have to kill Bruce Wayne." she muttered, almost too quietly to be heard.

Because anyone who put that look in Jason's eyes...bitchy girls or crimefighters...had to pay.

[prodigaljaybird]

For a moment, it doesn't even register. She's warm and she's close, and everything's still fucked but at least he has this moment with Allison, and then she says Bruce Wayne.

She says Bruce Wayne, and Jason's heart stops. He pulls back, and when the shock melts away he's looking at her as the Hood, because he doesn't know who else to be. Jason Todd couldn't survive this, whatever this is - Allison knows, knows Bruce's name, and she's either an enemy or about to be one hell of a target, and Jason just can't. He can't let himself love her in this moment if he's going to come through it intact.

"You - "

It's all there's time for before a sound at his back has him turning, his gun in his hand in an instant, but he doesn't fire. He aims at the man emerging from the shadows who's loomed as large in Jason's life as a god, bigger than he remembers somehow, yet just as dark, darker than a nightmare in the fucking cape swirling around him like bulletproof smoke.

"Run," Jason demands in a flat voice. Bruce might not kill her, but he's just the kind of ruthless asshole to wipe Allison's memory if it comes to that, and Jason knows he has a dozen ways how. "I won't let him near you."

[theresalwayshope]

Allison didn't have time to register the way Jason suddenly...disconnected. Something in his face changed, and it chilled her to the core because it was...

It was like someone else was standing there. Someone she didn't know...and yet...

Then he was pulling a gun, and whatever she felt vanished as a shadow filled the alley.

A shadow she knew, because she'd seen it before. Larger than life on the big screen, just as awe-inspiring and dark and full of violence as it had been years ago.

Batman. Actual Batman, with his matte black body armor and cowl and that sweeping cape. She knew what he'd sound like if he opened his mouth, that ridiculous gravelly tone Bale had used in the movie...

MINE.

The thought was all Allison as she drew the ring daggers at her back, flipping them at the ready as she moved to Jason's side.

"I'm not leaving you." she replied, firm and unyielding, but not flat. No, her voice was quiet, full of heat, and angry. Allison had only been mad like this once before, and that had been during the time she wanted Derek Hale's head on a stick outside her front door, dripping blood and eyes gazing sightlessly into nothing, filmy with the passage of life into death.

She was more than a little certain that this thing wasn't Bruce Wayne. If she was wrong, however...

Either way, it wasn't going to split them up.

She'd kill anyone, or anything, that tried to hurt Jason.

[prodigaljaybird]

"He's not just here for me," Jason hisses back, and for a fighter as tightly trained as he is, it's near agony to divert attention from Bruce to listen to the quality of her voice, but what Jason hears there makes the diversion worth it.

"This is one guy you don't fight angry." Or at all, if Jason has his way, but without his gear he's a distraction at best. "If you want to wake up tomorrow and still know your name, start running Allison, I mean it."

Too much, he's spared too much time for speech, for when Jason's eyes refocus Bruce is a full yard closer, those lensed eyes white and sightless, but Jason can feel the moment the Batman focuses on him.

"Jason," he says, his voice so familiar that Jason's knees nearly give, every part of him aching to step forward. He's been many things before this man, helpless among them, but it's never felt quite like this. Jason's head is spinning, enough that he begins to wonder if Bruce hasn't taken the time to drug them. "Son, please. Let me help you."

[theresalwayshope]

"I'm not leaving you!" Allison hissed, looking up at him with that heat in her eyes. "I won't run unless you're running with me, I'm not scared of some stupid billionaire bat--but Jason, I don't think it's Bruce--"

"...Allison?"

It was her father's voice, gentle and concerned in her ears, and even though she knew it had to be a trick, it still sapped the rage from her in an instant...so swiftly she swayed on her feet, vaguely dizzy.

Dizzy enough she can't tell if it's Jason or her that's suddenly wobbling as she keeps her eyes fixed on Jason.

"Allison, are you all right?"

I will not look. I will not look. He's not there. I will not look.

"Allison..."

The voice was suddenly closer, much closer, startling her. She gasped, she turned...

Chris Argent stood there, smiling at her warmly, features etched with fond worry as he opened his arms in invitation.

"Sweetheart...I was so worried! You ran away so fast..."

Her fingers tightened around her daggers, hard enough to hurt, hard enough to break the skin without her gloves to protect her. Dimly, she knew she should be worried about Wayne, but her father's face filled her whole vision, and everything in her felt like she was six years old again and ready to rush into her Daddy's arms after she got lost at the Orange County Fair when she bolted to see if the food stall up ahead had the deep fried Snickers bar Aunt Kate promised her...

"You're not real." She whispered, silent tears streaming down her face as she shook her head. "You can't be real..."

Be real. she felt herself wishing, desperate, panicked even, because she didn't want to see him if it was a trick.

Be real. Stop making me doubt. Don't you dare tell me this is another training exercise, Daddy...

"Tell me you see him." She managed to plead with Jason as her fingers began to bleed where her daggers cut into her skin with her viselike grip. "Please tell me you see him..."

[prodigaljaybird]

"What?" Jason exhales, reacting as much to the pain in Allison's voice as the words themselves, and he turns, watching Allison watch empty space. Why shouldn't he? The battle is over - he's lost, he lost as soon as he failed to prepare for Bruce's arrival, he can't protect himself and he can't protect her, not if she won't run.

She isn't, she's standing there, she's looking at - something he can't see. "See what?" Jason asks, so dizzy with the movement that he begins to fall, only to be caught by a pair of strong, Kevlar covered hands. "No - " Jason starts, but to his astonishment, when he lifts his gaze the Batman's cowl is gone, pushed away to reveal a face Jason hasn't seen in so long.

"Let me help you," Bruce says again, and Jason can't help himself, he folds into the arms offered him and hangs on, buoyed up by a body he hasn't let touch him in years. He's so goddamn tired, the fight that doesn't let him sleep at night draining from him like water, and Jason's feet begin to list against the ground. If Bruce lets him go, he'll drop like a stone, and the thought is humiliating, especially with Allison watching.

"Allison," Jason whispers, remembering, but he can't lift his head to find her.

[theresalwayshope]

Allison turned at the sound of Jason's voice, that hollow, lost sound. Wayne was there, and as she watched, horrified, Jason pitched right into his arms. It was just wrong, watching a movie character holding him that way, seeing strong and vibrant Jason so weak...

"Allison."

You're not my father. You're not my pack...you're hurting Jason and you're hurting me.

Focusing on the sting of her self inflicted cuts, Allison gripped her daggers tight...and with a furious shout, took a swing at her own father. The blow connected, but she didn't follow up as her blade yielded under its target...if it wasn't human, it might not even be hurt.

She had to get Jason away from the Batman.

Storming towards the pair, Allison let her daggers fly right at Wayne, rushing to try and support Jason at the same time, pulling him away from the man holding him upright.

"Get your filthy hands the hell off my boyfriend, you flying rodent freak!"

[prodigaljaybird]

Jason jerks backwards as the daggers find their mark, sinking not into Bruce's throat but something that will swiftly rise to the top of even Jason's nightmare list, all teeth and red eyes sunk into bottomless black depths.

Even as his eyes roll, Jason sees the thing lick its lips, words rasping like a tongue against his skin that makes him shudder. "A shame," it murmurs in a wet, sated voice, "You two would have made for quite a feast."

"Allison," says Jason again, a little stronger now for having detached from the creature holding him, staggering backwards with a hand curled in her sleeve, the other lifting his gun to fire a round. It finds its mark, but all that follows in its wake is a roll of thunderous laughter.

"Fuck," Jason exhales. He's not any more equipped to fight this without his gear than the Batman. "Now can we run?"

[theresalwayshope]

"We run like hell." Allison assured him, voice hard and flat as she dropped down just enough to retrieve her fallen daggers before turning to do just that: run, while supporting Jason's weight as best she can. He seemed to be a little less shaky, though. He could shoot fine, she wasn't bearing the bulk of him...he felt like he could run.

Fortunately, she'd made it a point to know the area around her office as well as she knew her hunting grounds, not wanting to be taken off guard again. Leading Jason down the alley, she took a couple of rights, a left, another right...

...when they emerged onto the main street again, she dragged Jason into foot traffic, keeping his arm around her shoulders as she slowed her pace. She felt winded, shaky...wrong, and Jason looked as bad as she felt, if not worse.

"Is your bike anywhere around here?" she asked, looking up at him. She wanted to stop and just hold him, reassure herself he was okay, but first they had to get somewhere safe. "Otherwise we're walking or bussing it back to my building, and I don't think either one of us are up for it."

Her apartment was safe. Kenzi was never far, she could call for Aramis or Porthos in a pinch, and Dr. Banner could look at Jason if he was in serious, hospital-level trouble...

She had to make sure Jason was safe.

[prodigaljaybird]

"It's - " says Jason, thinking of the bike he really wants, but the Hood's is too far from here, and regardless, he can't Allison see that. "Just one block," he answers, leading them that way as best he can with stumbling steps, half his energy focused on not bearing down too hard on Allison.

He's quiet as they move, forcing slow, even breaths into his lungs, but it isn't helping the way it should. That creature took something from him, from both of them, and far more than just Jason's pride. He's more than weak, he's diminished, and Jason keeps his head low until they reach the bike.

"We'll go straight to Bramford," he says, activating the bike's auto controls as subtly as he can as he reaches for a helmet. He's not sure he could drive right now otherwise, certainly not with Allison to think of, and Jason turns to look at her, all his many questions and explanations tabled just for now.

"Are you okay?"

[theresalwayshope]

Allison thought it would be an effort to split her focus between Jason and the hunt: staying ahead of a dangerous target, finding shelter and safety while trying not to let her emotions cloud her judgment. For her, extremes were where she lived, and that had gotten her intro trouble when she drifted too far from emotion before.

But Jason was doing the same thing...and it made it strangely easy to find balance. To be hard, to forget how much she cared for him, how scared she was for his safety...until he was looking at her, asking after her.

Then she wasn't the hunter or the vigilante anymore. She was the girl, and it was all she could do not to curl into him and come apart.

The only luxury she allowed herself was curling a hand around the back of his neck and pulling him close enough to kiss: hard and slow, solid and warm and reassuring, as much to him as to her: the warmth of his mouth on hers, the sound of his breath, the feel of his pulse as her hand slid away, lingering briefly at the pulse in his throat before she drew away to meet his gaze.

"As long as you can get us there without crashing." she replied quietly, the firm and even words hiding an entirely different sentiment as she waited for him to get on the bike before settling in behind him.

I'm terrified. I'm worried about you. I care too much to lose you, please be all right.

[prodigaljaybird]

Jason nods and waits for her body to curl against his before he punches the bike to life, grateful he's turned away when the vibrations force the gathering tears from his eyes. Beneath his hands and thighs, the bike guides itself, and Jason moves with it just enough to give the illusion of steering it through the streets, all but worn out by that small effort when they arrive in front of the Bramford building.

Spying a vendor, Jason quickly dismounts and helps Allison off, then buys them two bottles of orange juice. It's the best thing for having been bled, and Jason certainly feels it, his energy stores shallow and used up.

"It'll help," he says, pressing one into Allison's hand before he takes her other, guiding them both into the shelter of the building. Whatever needs saying, it can't happen in the streets, and it's only when he's got his back to the closed door of her apartment that Jason finally lets himself ask.

"How did you know it was Bruce?"

[theresalwayshope]

Allison accepts the bottle of orange juice, and en route to her apartment, a small wave from Dr. Banner as he exits the elevator just as they're getting on. She sips at her juice until they reach her place...and only then does she feel herself relax, the cold stillness of the hunt slipping away...letting her become Allison again, and not an Argent or the Alpha.

"Comic books." she replied quietly. Setting her juice, her keys, and her purse on the table beside her front door, she wastes no time in finding Jason's arms. He's still leaning back against her front door, but she doesn't care: she slips in close, arms circling his middle, and for a moment, lets her head rest against his chest so she can hear his heart beating.

She feels like her legs may give out any second...but the orange juice was helping a little.

"In my world, there are these comic books." she explained as she listened to that reassuring thump of his heart in her ear. "Batman is the main character...his secret identity is Bruce Wayne, he's got a sidekick named Robin...I think his first name is Dick or something." She paused, tipping her head up to meet his gaze, cheek still resting partly against his chest.

"I don't read comic books, but my friend, Stiles, reads...all of them." She shifted, dragging her head up a little more to rest her chin against his chest as she looked up at him. "There were some movies made about them...I saw one a few years ago. It's based on the comic books, but not to the letter."

[prodigaljaybird]

He doesn't try to hide the way his heart pounds, the way it skips for names that no one's supposed to know, his body slumping against the door in something that feels very much like defeat. "Comic books," he mouths, throat for a moment too full for speech, and meets her eyes.

Bucky was in comic books. He and Steve and their adventures, but their identities were always known to all, and their stories based on reality, real battles they bled for, even died for. Jason died, but it seems it was for nothing more than a good fucking yarn.

"That makes me fiction," he says. "Somebody's story. He's my dad, Allison."

[theresalwayshope]

Allison's throat closed around that before she could tell him that comic books were more than that. Maybe not one of her biggest interests, maybe not like Stiles, but even the most out of touch person knew Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman and Captain America. Even the most disconnected soul drew inspiration from those names, found empowerment in those stories...hell, she'd done stints as both Wonder Woman and Batgirl as a little kid.

But when he said Bruce Wayne was his father, Allison couldn't breathe for a second.

Straightening, the shock and confusion showed in her face. If Bruce Wayne was his father...he wasn't just someone from Gotham City, he was more. Maybe Jason wasn't even his name, maybe he was...could he be Robin? Was he really a comic book character? One of those--

Just thinking it, thinking of Jason as fictional tore a reaction from her she couldn't stop. Taking his face between her hands, her grip was painful as she held him there to look her dead in the eye. Something hot and wild and even angry clawed up out of her chest, something buried in carefree motorcycle rides and his hands on her body by a cool, quiet lake, something wrapped inside of shy smiles and combat knives and the intense way he would stare into her face before he kissed her...

"I don't care if the Tooth Fairy is your mother, Jason Todd, the boy I love is real."

He was real, she was touching him...and she had a very strong feeling that, just now, in that alley, he could have died.

[prodigaljaybird]

Jason makes a soft, despairing sound, and for the moment, her faith in him is the only thing he has to cling to. Everything he's been through, everything he's suffered and still suffers, every day, it has to mean something. Looking at her wild, dark eyes, Jason has to believe that what it means to Allison is enough.

He covers her hands in his own, letting his knees give and cushioning her descent with the bracket of his own body. "Do you know how many Robins there've been?" he asks, fighting a sudden urge to laugh. "We're so fucking replaceable, it'd blow your mind."

[theresalwayshope]

Allison slid to the floor with him, settling herself between his legs to finally curl against his chest the way she'd been aching to...then elbowed him sharply in the stomach even he told her how replaceable Robins were.

"I'll put a dagger in your gut instead of my elbow if you tell me that again." She grumbled, glaring at him before laying her head on his shoulder.

So Jason had been Robin. And Batman was his father. God, she couldn't even process this...first the monsters in the alley, then this...

...and she loved him. She was starting to, anyway. She was falling for the Boy Wonder. One who used guns, and she was pretty sure Batman didn't...

Her head was spinning with questions and worry and thoughts racing at the speed of light, and her head felt spinny on top of it all...

Thread the needle, Allison. Jason needs you. There's time to talk, but not if he's seriously hurt.

With a shaky sigh, she lifted her head, peering into his face and running her hands over his arms and shoulders.

"You might need a doctor. God knows what that thing did you you." She paused, taking his face between her hands, more gently this time.

"Jason...we can talk later, okay? Or not talk, I don't care." Her hand smoothed over his cheek, then she leaned in to kids his forehead.

"I need to know you're okay. Please, Jace."

[prodigaljaybird]

"I'm okay." Her hands aren't much warmer than his own skin, but they're a comfort, smoothing away the worst of the fractures in Jason's heart. "I think it was eating our energy," he says, frowning. "Like a...a Dementor. I've seen a lot of weird shit, but never anything like that."

He curls his fingers through her own, blinking sore eyes to get a decent look at her up close. "Are you okay?" he asks again, brushing a lock of dark hair from her cheek. She's holding it together, and she's walking, talking, that much is clear, but she'd seen something in that alley, too.

"It was your dad," he says. "That thing I couldn't see."

[theresalwayshope]

She felt a little better when Jason reached out for her, tangling his fingers in hers, brushing back her hair. Asking about what she saw, though...that sting of longing pierces through her again, and her eyes grow bright with unshed tears she didn't give permission to spring up.

Lowering her gaze for a second, she bites her lip and nods with a shaky sigh.

"I think it was pulling from our memories." she admitted, bringing one of his hands up to kiss his knuckles before she guided their joined hands to rest on her knees, keeping a tight grip on his fingers. "The stuff my dad was saying...we lived in Orange County for a couple months when I was six, and I got lost at the county fair. When I saw him in that alley...he looked exactly the same, he sounded the same."

She paused, not wanting to bring it up again, but needing to if they were going to figure this out. Reflexively, her grip on his hands tightened.

"And the Batman I saw, it was from a movie, like I said." Meeting his gaze, she shifted closer, kissing him quickly, as if she could soften the discomfort of talking about his father with the gesture, with her nearness...will away the pain just by holding on tight enough, or being near enough to wrap him up and never let him go.

"The actor who played him in the movie had a little bit of a lisp...does your dad have one?"

[prodigaljaybird]

"God, no," says Jason, moved to a tiny smile by the very idea. "Something that identifying would get him killed." He strokes his fingers through her hair, not missing the way she seems easier for the constant contact. Here they are, barely across the threshold and curled up on the floor, but Jason doesn't yet feel like moving. It's just another surreal part of an already fucked up day, and this time, he's the one to lean in for a kiss.

"Mine wasn't a straight memory," he admits after. Bruce had asked to help him more than once, but he'd sure as hell never hugged him, however much Jason wanted it. "More like, something I wanted to happen. Something that'd make me stick around so it could keep eating."

He sighs, shamed by his own need when it comes to Bruce, but another thought strikes him. "What's he like?" he asks, curious. "In your movies?"

[theresalwayshope]

Allison kissed him back with a soft smile, then with a sigh, finally moved back into her previous place. This time, however, she twisted around so she could sit between his legs, laying back against his chest with her head pillowed against his shoulder while his back lay against her front door.

Yes, it was a weird place to snuggle up, but nothing about them was normal. It was just...right.

"In the movies, he's a good man." she admitted. "Damaged...hard-headed, occasionally he's a dick, but it's superficial. He cares a lot about the people he loves, but everyone's sort of at a distance. He makes it that way, he thinks he has to be alone."

She paused, tipping her head back to look up at him for a moment, then tilted her head a little further so she could kiss his jaw. "And he doesn't have a Robin, but the movies are supposed to be a trilogy. So far, only two have been released for me back home, I think maybe we'll see him in the third movie. At least I hope so: I don't think there's ever been an incarnation of Batman that didn't have a Robin. I mean...he's not the Dark Knight without the Boy Wonder."

She paused, a smile touching her face. "So...you were really Robin? Is that where you learned all the weapons stuff?"

[prodigaljaybird]

Jason grunts for the description. It's not wrong, even if it's not entirely right, either. These movies might actually get Bruce better than Bruce does himself.

"For a few years," he answers. The best of his life in so many ways, even if Jason can't look back on them now without pain. "I was a street rat, making it on my own however I had to. The Batman, he drove into Crime Alley, left his car alone for too long. I stole the wheels off the Batmobile."

He smiles, a little proud of it, even now. "I guess he liked my nerve, 'cause he adopted me that week."

[theresalwayshope]

"Oh my God, you stole the wheels off the Batmobile?" she gaped, giggling as she twisted around just enough to look at him. "Okay, I knew you were a badass, but I didn't know you stole the wheels off the Batmobile! That's..."

She trailed off, jaw hanging open and still smiling in amazement. A few hours ago, he'd still been so much of an enigma to her, full of secrets and things he didn't think he could share...scars and shadows and every line of him a knife's edge...

And now she could see so much more of him. Maybe she didn't know everything, but she could imagine with some certainty where those dark parts of him were born.

"...you are the most amazing person I've ever known." she finished, reaching out to run her fingers back through his hair, the scar along his scalp no longer so mysterious. A battle wound, earned on the streets of Gotham...just a kid, Robin was always a little kid...

He was so much braver and stronger and...better than she would ever be, and she loved it. She loved him, she loved him so much right that second she ached with it.

[prodigaljaybird]

Jason grins back, not flinching when her fingers drag along the scar he hates most of all, her smile more than bright enough to chase any shadows away. "I was a little shit," he laughs, but he's proud of that, too. He'd been what he needed to be to survive - it's a talent that's never left him, even if it's gotten him into a hell of a lot of trouble.

"But, um," he says, sobering a little. "If he ever really does come here, don't expect a happy reunion." In case that hadn't been obvious when Jason pulled his gun. "We don't get along anymore."

[theresalwayshope]

"You told me that once before...it's okay." she assured him softly, smiling as she regarded him with open affection. She was curious...she had so many questions, but that much hadn't changed: he'd tell her when he was ready.

She wouldn't go digging for the skeletons resting in his graveyard.

"And if he ever does come here," she added, remembering how Jason had reacted, "he won't get a welcome reception from me." Shaking her head a little, she held his gaze. "Not after what I saw today...you don't have to tell me why, just...understand that I'm with you. You and I...we're pack. You know what that means to me...stronger together than apart, your enemies are mine, and your beefs with your dad? I'm on your side, no matter what."

[prodigaljaybird]

Her face is so open, expression unguarded so Jason can see that she means it. She's with him, not horrified or disgusted or confused why Jason would choose to cross the Batman. Allison doesn't know everything yet, but she knows enough, and she accepts it. Accepts him.

Lux loved him, he knows that, but not this fiercely. Certainly not this generously, and his breath stutters in his chest, an odd little sound that Jason is quick to cover with a smile.

"You're amazing," he says, more extension of his thoughts than intended utterance, but Jason doesn't take them back. "I'm kinda - well not kind of, sort of a lot." Rolling his eyes at his own incompetence, Jason tries again. "I'm sort of a lot in love with you."

[theresalwayshope]

Allison looked into his eyes as he said it...saw it shining out of him and heard it in his voice, and she couldn't breathe around it. It was a feeling she'd experienced before, but not like this...not love for the sharp edges and the dark places inside her. Not the awe for the blood she drew and the reverence for the shard of ice in her heart.

Scott loved her, the bad with the good...but Jason loved both. All the same, all equal, all as beautiful and precious and lovable. She didn't have to protect him from herself, he was in love with the danger.

He was in love with her...even the parts she never let Scott see long enough to hate or fear.

Burrowing her hands in his hair, she drew him closer, pressing her forehead against his, drinking in that look as he said it, memorizing the way it filled his face...giddy, drowning in the way it made her feel, so familiar and so different and so humbling...

"I'm in love with you, too." She whispered with a smile, small at first, then bigger until it was splitting her face nearly in two. She pulled him closer for a kiss, then another, still grinning and repeating it between kisses.

"I love you...I'm in love...with you...I love you, Jace..."