The Arrangement

Ch - 17 To meet again

Syn would admit to putting this meeting or 'date' last. The history between them was something that couldn't be ignored.

Jason Todd rarely talked about his time with the League and showed no familiarity with Damian. Syn didn't think she could do that. Jason had been one of her caregivers while with the League. She and Damian spent a great deal of time with Jason, her more so than Damian. It hurts to be without. She really didn't know how to approach him, at least not this new version of him. Upon Damian's insistence, she decided to just walk to him.

-

Stepping into Crime Alley was an experience. It just felt different. She could feel eyes on her. Even if she couldn't see them, she was an outsider. Everyone knew it as she did. Syn continued walking down the street with the many eyes on her.

She walked for a few more minutes before someone whistled. Turning around, she sees Red Hood standing in an alley. Taking the hint, she follows him as he walks away. They walk for some time, her staying a few feet away from him the entire time, their destination being an apartment building. They enter through the back and make their way to the top floor where his safe house was.

It looked like a simple apartment. Scares of decor and lacking personality but simple and equipped. He walked into the living room. He pressed a light switch, and the wall holding the TV, across from the couch, opened up to relieve a nok holding weapons and armor. He stepped into the nook and took a dagger off the wall. He takes his helmet off and sits on the couch.

"This is from the League of Assassins," it was. She recognized it as one of the signature daggers that personal/ royal guards carried. " I don't remember when I got this, but I know it's from the league. I have a scar." he shrugs off his jacket and rolls up his sleeve, showing a scar on his tricep" I know it's from my time in the League but I don't know how I got it."

During a training session he missed a step and it lead to an injury that scarred over, she remembered.

"That's what most of my time with the League is like. No memories but many mementos. I don't remember you, not really. Everything is blurry and hazy, some of it with Damian. But I know you, you feel familiar. There's a history. But I don't know what."

Syn moved to sit on the couch. "What do you know? What do you want to know?" There was a few minutes of silence. He gathered his thoughts. She let him.

"Princess, I called you Princess. We spent a lot of time together, right?" he sounded confused, unsure of his own words.

"Yes, if addressing me was absolutely necessary, you'd call me princess as I was the Prince's bethrob. But, overall, with your state at the time, you rarely spoke. This was before your pit dip. You were our guard." Syn was honest. She didn't see any reason not to be. She wouldn't want to be uncomfortable. She wanted him to get his memories back.

"Our guard?"

"Damian and I. You were our personal guard. Well, Damian's, but you took to guarding and caring for me as well."

"You... you called him my Prince. Followed him everywhere like... like a light." His memory might have been blurry or hazy, but he recognized her in them still. She was the light, the laughter, the joy in those dark memories. " Damian never spoke of it. He never said anything." While Jason knew that their paths crossed within the League, there was no doubt. He was unaware as to the extent. Damian never spoke of it and never showed any familiarity. And now, finding how he was his bodyguard.

" How long?"

"Talia found you six months after you dug yourself out. You protected us until you were delivered to the pit. You were with him for five years. I was only there for a little over a year before..." Syn had spent very little time with Jason compared to Damian, but still, he had been a very important person to her. She wasn't going to tell him that, though; she didn't think he was ready to hear that.

She watched as he struggled with these reveals, his body hunched over his hands, trembling. She couldn't see his face, she didn't want to. She let him... fall. waited for him to speak or not, she could sit in silence too. And they did for sometime. He gave silence for about an hour.

"I ... I remember this weight on my chest. It's warm and soft and I... I need it. I need that weight on my chest, in my arms, against my skin. I think I know what that weight is now."

"Oh"

"... I remember his little laugh. It was rare, but he had one." She watched as he wiped his tears. " What about us?" she looked at him confused. " Surely you have stories. Something to say."

She had a lot to say and many stories, and she wanted to talk. She wanted a long talk. But not right now, it was already too much she could tell. Tonight was enough, so instead of all that, she said, " Thank you for protecting me."

That should be enough for now.

-

Jason watched from the window as Damian and Syn drove off. He called him to get her. He knew she had more to say or to reveal. He was grateful, and he was upset. He was thankful she spared him and gave him a moment to settle into the information but also upset he didn't remember more. He was the adult, the eldest, and he should be providing that comfort instead of a 15-year-old girl.

Others might have forgotten her age due to her mature behavior or insignificant behavior and pushed her to the side due to her League affiliation. He couldn't; he couldn't forget that she was a 15-year-old little girl surrounded by blood and violence, a little girl who grew in blood and violence. 15 And yet she presented herself as a sophisticated young lady with an understanding of the whole world. He didn't believe it.

-

She was tired. She was beyond exhausted and in pain. Today had been a long day. She wanted her grandfather and brother. She wanted to lie down and curl up with her younger brother and listen to her grandfather tell his story. But they weren't here she was alone. She was alone in a room far from home, tired and bleeding.

There was a knock on the door. With the dagger in hand, she answered. " Tayir?" The bodyguard. She didn't know his real name, but Lady Talia called him some variations of a bird, so... He didn't say anything, never did.

He walked into the room. He took her arm, which was bleeding. " Sparring with Damian. It was an accident". He shook his head. Accident, Damian didn't have accidents.

He led her to her bed, where her gauze lay from her own wrapping attempt. He sat her down and began to wrap it. She watched as he gently but firmly wrapped her wound. He didn't say a word the entire time. She leaned about his good touch—the only good touch she had since arriving here. He was good.

"Thank you," he said, leaving her alone.

Laying down, she held her would to her chest. He was gentle.