no rest for the wicked [jason todd]

thirty seven

JASON WAS BUSTLING AROUND THE KITCHEN

when Tye woke up. She didn't see him immediately, she was still in the bedroom, but she could hear the sound of his feet against the tile. She heard the sink too, a brief bang of a pot or pan, and then the music came. It was, somehow, the opposite kind of music she ever pictured her boyfriend listening to. She stumbled into the kitchen and he spotted her almost instantly, reaching for her hand.

He pulled her close, whispering along to the song, "a drop in the ocean, a change in the weather, I was praying that you and me might end up together..." His laughing broke off the gentleness of the moment and he buried his face into her shoulder, trying to ignore how cheesy it was. "It came on the radio," he said, blatantly lying, since the music was coming from a bluetooth speaker.

He reached over to switch the song to AC/DC's Thunderstruck. Definitely more akin to what she figured he listened to.

"Morning's going good, I guess?" She offered toward him. He shrugged, grabbing a strawberry off the counter. "I'd hope so," she continued, plucking the fruit from his fingers and biting down into it. He watched her eyes flutter closed, the movement of her jaw, and swallowed nervously.

"Yeah," he managed to breathe out, voice a little airy and light. He jerked out a hand to catch himself when his feet began to slip, his pupils going a little wide. He turned to glance toward the window, clearing his throat nervously. "Hah, uh, how do you want your eggs? Do you want eggs? Nauseous? I should have fuckin'— I shoulda asked if you even wanted eggs because of lately. Damn it. Why didn't I—? Why didn't I ask? Stupid, stupid."

"You're so harsh on yourself," she told him, patting his shoulder. "No worries about it, Jay. I'm gonna skip the eggs if that's okay, but..." She scanned his face, telling him, "I'll eat the rest. Promise."

Jason set a grape in her palm. "You better hold off for a big breakfast," he reminded her, "I mean, you invited Roy out for lunch." After a moment, he turned back toward her. "I don't think I should take the job. I mean, with you— With you in this state, Tye, it just doesn't seem fair or safe for me to go. I'd feel too awful. What if something happened to you while I was gone?"

"Then I'd kick their ass," Tye told him, pressing her finger tips against his and popping the grape into her mouth, "obviously. What else? I'm not useless, Jay. You can't lose faith in me because of one thing."

He reached for her arm and rubbed his hand gently up to her shoulder, thumb finding her collarbone and rubbing across it. "I was fortunate to meet you," he told her, "you're the most kickass girl I've ever met, and I don't know how I did any good to fate to land us in the same alleyway that night. You're the only thing I've... You're the only thing that I've done right, Tye. How did you—"

"Shh," Tye told him, patting his cheek. "C'mon, Little Red, save the sappy love declarations for another day. Let's just make breakfast."

He sighed, leaning up to pop a grape into her mouth. "Okay," he told her,
"but we're talking about this after. Roytoy can kiss my ass if we're late, couldn't care less about him."

Tye pressed a strawberry to his lips. "C'mon, Jay, play nice," she teased.

When lunch came about, they were late by fifteen minutes. Jason was trying to calm her down and Tye was basically flipping out when they finally found the table and sat down across from Roy. "Sorry we were late," she apologized quickly to the redhead. "We've been dealing with some stuff and it's just been like -- Ugh, it's been complicated, honestly."

"How's the little girl?" Jason asked, leaning forward. His smile was gentle and his lips were tilted up slightly -- the minute he even said it, Roy's eyes lit up.

"Lian, Lian," he said, "oh my God, Jay, she turned four this year and she's absolutely adorable. She makes these macaroni necklaces at school and she brings them home. You should come see her, she misses you. What's it been, a year? I mean, Jaybird..." He glanced toward Tye, pulling up a picture on his phone. "This is my little girl," he told her, "you should both come for dinner."

Jason grabbed the phone and pulled it close to his face. "You're kidding, this is little Lian? I don't believe it, she's so big, Roy."

"She's adorable," Tye told him with a smile. All this talk of kids really settled into her stomach and she turned toward Jason, as if to try and communicate something. He glanced at her, looking a little surprised, and then he opened his mouth. She turned back to Roy, offering a nervous smile and said, "We're, uh, we're..."

Jason took a deep breath. "She's pregnant," he told Roy, "it's one of the reasons I'm real hesitant on taking this job, Roytoy. We just found out and it's been a little bit of an anxiety trip lately."

"I can babysit your little girl," promised Tye to Roy, "you guys can do the mission and I can hang out at home."

"See?" Roy prompted to his friend now, a little smile on his face. He lifted his coffee mug and took a sip, nodding toward Jason now. "We're fine and set for this mission then, Jay. You can even call Dickie if you think we need some extra help. I haven't... I haven't seen Kori in a little while so I honestly don't know where she got to..."

The black-haired man took his friend's hand and squeezed softly. "I know it's a sore spot for you," he told him, "Kori and everything. It's fine, we're here for each other, and she just... She needed time for everything, Roy."

Tye tilted her head slightly. "Time's a bitch," she told Jason and Roy now, "but it's life."

-
happy birthday to me!!!