no rest for the wicked [jason todd]

seventeen

WHEN JASON PULLED AWAY FROM HER,

Tye's mouth immediately went very, very dry. She had her hands pressed up against his chest in an almost defensive position, her head still tilted slightly as she made eye contact with him. "Jason," she began, her voice shaking slightly, "that was... I'm in shock, I'm shocked, you-- Jesus, do you ever think? What if this doesn't work out and then--"

"Stop thinking so much," Jason said softly, leaning in to press his forehead against hers, "just live in the moment for a second."

Tye reached up to press a hand against his cheek, a little too cold, and he pressed a warm hand over hers. "I can't," she whispered, "it feels like my brain is running laps. I feel like I've just run three Olympic sprints and I can't breathe anymore. It feels like my lungs are rejecting the oxygen and I can't even process anything anymore. What if my brain short circuits and I die? I don't want to die, I--" She took in a deep breath.

He laughed, gentle and soft in her ears, a sound that she wouldn't mind hearing for the rest of her life. "I think I owe you something," he said, and his voice had adopted a more serious tone as he pulled away, scanning her face. "I owe you the truth. You're gonna wanna sit down."

"I'm gonna wanna--" Tye seemed to nearly object when he made her sit down on the edge of the bed, but she did listen nonetheless. Then she stared toward him, lips quirking into a little smile. "What? What's so serious that you have to do the whole 'let's-sit-down-and-discuss' thing?" She scanned his eyes for a moment, especially when his lips turned down and he shook his head, pressing a hand over his face. "Jason..." She began, "I'm not going to think any different of you."

Jason paused, lifting his hands. "Let's get it all out there," he muttered, looking up toward her. "I died, Tye. I actually died."

"You -- you what?" Tye breathed out. "This has to be a joke, Jason. It has to be. You're kidding around with me." He shook his head and she paused. "You're not kidding," she said after a moment, "that doesn't make any sense. You mean like, your heart stopped?"

He leaned forward, sighing. "No," he admitted, "well -- yeah, my heart stopped. Can we rewind? This makes a lot more sense with context."

Tye's eyebrows pulled together but she nodded, motioning with her hands. "Go ahead," she said, "start from the beginning now, okay? All over again. Start with your childhood, if you have to. I need this to make sense if you're going to pour your heart out. I need all the context in the world, Jay, I want to hear everything."

"I..." Biting down on his lip, Jason sighed. He put his hands out, beginning to wave them slightly, and then he clamped his mouth shut. "When I was younger," he began, "my dad was a fuck-up. He got arrested, and when his sentence ended, he didn't come back. It was my mom and me, and half the time, she was so high that I don't think she even knew I was around anymore." He took a brief pause, tilting his head. "So I got myself out onto the streets and I stole car parts, thought if I kept doing that, I could keep getting money. Eating, you know, living."

He tried to take in another deep breath, but he seemed to shake this time. "Came home one night," he said, "and she'd OD'd. Hard stuff. I kept trying to protect myself after that, and... I mean, the Batman? He replaced his tires, except, he didn't replace the hubcaps, and I consider myself an opportunist, so..." He shrugged, offering, "I took one. Came back for the rest and he caught me."

Tye's eyes widened slightly. "You met Batman?" She asked in shock.

"A little more than met," Jason murmured, "he took me in. Let me work with him, I was the second one to use the name 'Robin'." He lifted his fingers to do air quotations, an eyebrow quirking. "Then, found out who killed my dad. Nearly killed him, but I stopped myself."

Tye gently reached for his hand, but he was too far, and he didn't seem to be willing to move any closer just yet. "So," he began, "the next part I can think of went all sour. I found my mom, the real one, and I tracked her down to Ethiopia. Bunch of shit happens and I get beat down in a warehouse by the Joker. Things explode, and I don't make it out of there alive."

"Jason," she said, and her voice sounded like she was begging. He finally looked up at her, and there might have been tears in his eyes, but she didn't even mention them. "Jason, how about we stop there for now? You haven't... You haven't told anyone this yet, have you?"

"It's not every day that you trust someone enough to tell them your life story," Jason managed through a crack in his voice, rubbing a hand over his eyes. "Jesus, I'm a mess. I kinda ruined the mood from earlier, didn't I?" He moved to stand up, taking a deep breath. "I'm gonna grab a coffee," he said after a moment of silence, "what do you take?"

"Black, one sugar," Tye offered, giving him a brief smile, which he just barely returned before he headed out the door. He'd left his story unfinished, as she'd asked, but she couldn't help the curiosity building in her chest. No one usually died and made it out alive again. No one, and the idea that the one person she'd cared about in the last couple of years had died?

The shock was almost too much to bear, but she would be there for him. She might have been right when she'd called him broken.

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don't get used to these mostly daily uploads, ok? <3

I'm trying to be good lately but school will get ahead of me soon.