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“Marry Me,” Jason says throwing himself into the chair across from Roy’s hastily.
Roy removes his goggles sitting the sawdering tool in his hands down. “And a good evening, to you too, Jaybird,” he chuckles.
“Yeah, hi. Listen, marry me,” Jason says again.
“Okay, Jay,” Roy says with a snicker looking down at the arrows he’s been toying with.
“No I’m serious,” Jason says and he actually sounds it. Roy looks back up at him, his eyebrows raised. “Jason Todd, not Red Hood was caught on camera leaving a warehouse that proceeded to explode moments after I exited. Cause, you know I blew it up.”
Some days it has to be wondered if Jason Todd staying legally dead would have been the better option. Can’t be a wanted man if you don’t exist.
“But we-“
“Disabled all the cameras?” Jason says with a sigh. “Yeah, no we missed one, a dashcam from a car across the street.”
“Shit,” Roy says throwing down the arrow looking to the side. It takes him a moment, but another bad thought hits him. “Oh shit, shit Roy Harper was also on camera fucking waiting for you across the street.”
Jason shakes his head. “You look innocent, you were just waiting for a friend, we were both in street clothes. You couldn’t have known what I was up to in there even if you very much knew, but you will be considered a witness.”
“Well, still shit,” Roy says concerned for Jason.
“And when they bring you in you’ll refuse to say anything and then they’ll find something to pin on you and you’ll wind up in the cell next to mine,” Jason continues on.
“Shit,” Roy says again more emphatically this time.
“Unless of course by law we are bound to one another and you can completely refuse to say a word and it’s legal,” Jason says with a shrug. “Which unless you have any other bright ideas we can make happen quickly marriage seems like an easy fix.”
Roy hums in thought. “We both have rich dads?” he says more as a question than a solution.
“My dad’s not exactly in the mood to bail me out of anything right now,” Jason says. Which is a good point, Bat’s been a little upset since the building explosion in question. “And if yours has to one more time he’s not gonna stay so cool about you hanging around me anymore.”
Also true, Oliver has tentatively accepted Roy runs with the Red Hood now, he’s done them a few favors already and another of this magnitude might change his opinion on the whole situation.
“Well, shit. You got the marriage certificate?” he asks. Looks like they’re doing this thing.
Jason grabs inside of his jacket and drops the papers on the table.
“The justice of the peace will see us in an hour and I’ll probably get picked up fifteen minutes after that if Dick’s intel is good,” Jason says shoving the papers his way, already decorated with is signature.
“What a short honeymoon that will be,” Roy says picking up a discarded pen from the table and signing as well. Jason snorts out a laugh.
“I’m afraid I’m short on romance in this situation, honey,” Jason says jokingly. Roy’s heart flutters just a bit at the pet name. It’s somehow more appealing than the marriage proposal.
***
The “wedding” takes all of about fifteen minutes, the pair choosing to skip over the vows since this is a fly by night, shotgun marriage if there ever was one.
“By the power vested in me by the city of Gotham I know pronounce you husbands,” the justice of the peace says as the woman serving as witness in the corner yawns, clearly bored of their fake little wedding. “You may now kiss your husband.”
Jason’s heart beats in double time at the words, his eyes going a little too wide when he turns to face the justice of the peace. He hadn’t exactly thought about this aspect of marrying Roy for the benefit of them not both being jailed and he really doesn’t have time to deal with whatever the hell has been going on of late with his feelings around Roy. This is strictly business, so he gets right down to that, treating it like the times they’ve gone undercover as a couple Roy’s soft lips caressing against his cheek.
He leans in planting a soft kiss on Roy’s lips and feels just a slight tremble running through Roy’s body that he interprets as shock as the kiss lasts just a few beats. Roy’s lips move in tandem with his just a bit not quite open mouthed, but not too innocent either. A believable kiss between two people who just got married.
When they part Jason clears his throat his eyes not quite able to meet Roy’s, worried of what Roy might see in them. They shake hands and share pleasantries with the justice of the peace and the bored witness before slipping out into the hallway a small line of couple looking in love and eager on a Friday afternoon waiting their turn.
Roy slips his fingers between Jason’s and Jason does his best not to react to it smiling as a few of the couples tell them congratulations on their way down the hall.
“So,” Roy says as they both take the steps two at a time heading towards the exit. “Whatever shall we do as our first act as a wedded pair, my dearest?” Roy chuckles swinging their arms playfully back and forth between them.
“Well-” Jason starts as he pushes open the door with his free hand dragging Roy out onto the street. He doesn’t get a chance to finish his thought freezing when he sees the flash of blue and red before them.
“Jason Todd!” a deep voice booms, five uniformed officers and two street clothes detectives circling around them. “Hands up, you’re under arrest!”
He drops Roy’s hands lifting his own sky high, Roy does the same beside him just in case.
“Whatever for officer?” he says in his best innocent little son of a rich boy voice, a blinding fake smile on his lips.
“Possession and use of an illegal explosive device,” one of the plain clothes detectives says as he roughly pulls Jason’s arms down cuffing him a pinch too tightly. Jason doesn’t even flinch. “Maybe even attempted murder if you didn’t know the building was empty.”
“I have no clue what you’re talking about,” Jason says as the other detective pats him down. Not even a lie detector could catch him right now. “Hey now there, buddy,” he says when the detective pats down the inside of his thighs. “I only let my husband get that frisky after he buys me dinner.”
The detective shoots him a glare scoffing out the word husband like it’s impossible and maybe just a little like the word offends him. It makes Jason want to resist arrest.
“We need to speak with you as well Mr. Harper,” the detective who’s cuffed him says shooting his attention Roy’s way. “It seems you were a witness to the explosion your pal here may be responsible for and we need you to answer a few questions.”
“Yeah I’m not going with you,” Roy says unfurling his hat from his back pocket and slipping it on his head backwards with a smile. He looks like a cocky frat boy still in his torn-up jeans with the oil stains on the pockets and a size too small Blondie t-shirt, Jason can’t get enough of it. “You see unless you have something to arrest me for I don’t have to go anywhere with you, so you’ll have to get a court order. Which you could do, take all that effort and whatnot, but see if you do it still won’t really matter because anything I say won’t hold up in any court of law and I don’t have to say anything in the first place if I don’t want to because that’s my husband you want me to inform on.”
“Sure, cause the sons of two of the richest men in America got married and we didn’t hear about it,” the pat down detective scoffs.
“Well it was only about five minutes ago,” Roy says with a smug smirk stepping up to the detectives. He reaches into his other back pocket pulling out their copy of the marriage certificate and unfolding it. “Plus, even if we’d done a whole thing, the press lost interest in us the second I got clean and the novelty of him not being dead wore off.”
He waves the document in front of their eyes pat down detective snatching it from his hand and reading it over, once, twice before shoving it back at Roy’s chest.
“How the fuck did you know?” he snarls at Jason. Jason just continues on looking innocent as he can.
“Know?” he says clueless. “All I know is we’re young and impulsive and the sun was shining just the right way this morning that we decided why the hell not, we already have the joint bank account so why not make the rest official?”
Roy smiles his direction and for a second it almost feels real then his eyes turn icy looking at the two detectives.
“Fuck,” the detective that cuffed him says pushing Jason forward. “Fine, we can still take you in, till daddy makes bail at least.”
He shoves Jason forward and into the back of a cruiser.
“See you at home later, babe!” Roy yells after him waving with both hands and a smile, before throwing one last glare the detectives way. Jason chuckles as Roy keeps waving when the cruiser pulls away taking him to the precinct.
***
Roy stews pacing back and forth across the living room of their safehouse for hours after the cops all scatter leaving him behind, not even one of them being kind enough to offer him a ride home after watching his husband being pulled away.
Eventually they must let Jason make his one call cause Dick let’s him know that they aren’t formally charging Jason yet, without Roy’s witness statement there is no witness statement and the dash cam video is as of right now circumstantial at best, but they are keeping him as long as they can overnight.
“He also said to tell you the only reason he didn’t call you was because he thought it would be hilarious if he made a phone call to a guy who used to work with those chump detectives right in front of them,” Dick explains on the other end of the line. Roy can hear the wind whipping around him, assuming he’s on patrol somewhere in Bludhaven tonight. “I’ll pick him up in the morning too.”
“Really?” Roy says a little surprised. Dick loves his brother, but he usually doesn’t abide playing into his more illegal antics.
“The guys who brought him in were always pricks, I’d like to see the look on their faces when I show up,” he says and Roy can imagine the playful smile he’s sporting. Dick Grayson is a good man, petty about almost nothing, but ever since he left the police force and forged his own path he’s delighted in making it tough for all the dirty cops and just assholes he used to work with.
“Petty as fuck, Grayson,” Roy chuckles finally settling down on the couch kicking his feet up on the coffee table mindful of the stack of arrows he’d left there that morning. “I love it.”
Dick chuckles as well the sound of sirens cutting him off.
“Shit, I gotta go, but don’t think we’re not talking about the whole married my little brother thing eventually, alright?” he says and Roy can already hear him taking off in a run.
“Yeah, yeah I know, we will,” Roy assures him even though he’d like to avoid that conversation at all costs. He doesn’t really want his very perceptive best friend to look him in the eyes and see the truth when he tries to play off the idea of him being fine with this whole thing as a silly way to avoid jailtime and nothing more. That he’ll see the way Roy lingers a little too long on his partner in crime fighting when Jason’s not paying attention, or catch how the always tactile Roy seems to be extra tactile with Jason simply because Jason’s comfortable enough around him to allow it.
“Thanks for calling,” he says hanging up the phone and falling back into the cushions with a sigh.
***
It’s almost two months before the detectives finally lay off, the charges won’t stick no matter how hard they try, no matter how many times they try to find a work around to the whole no testifying against your spouse thing. It falls apart and eventually Jason has to ask Roy the question he’s been dreading since he first got picked up by the cops.
He doesn’t really want to ask it, two months of cracking jokes about being married and terrorizing Bruce with the information have been fun, lighthearted in a way Jason only really ever gets to be around Roy and part of him doesn’t want to give that up. Most of him doesn’t want to give that up, but it’s time. He can’t keep putting it off because if he does he’ll wait until Roy’s the one to finally break his heart, he’d rather just break his own. It’s easier that way, more internalized.
“So, do you think we should get divorced?” Jason asks a few nights after he gets word from Dick that he’s officially in the clear. They’re spread out on the couch in their Gotham safehouse. Roy has his feet kicked up on the edge of the couch his head resting on one of Jason’s thighs wearing a pair of sweatpants that keep slipping down showing off the v of Roy’s hips and a trail of freckles that Jason would very much like to follow with his fingers and his lips unknowingly driving Jason absolutely crazy.
Roy shifts his head from where he’d been focused on the animated movie playing on the tv that Jason stopped paying attention to the second Roy shifted and decided to use Jason as his own personal pillow. The bangs of his hair that’s been getting a little longer lately fall in his eyes when he moves. Jason’s restless fingers itch to push them out of the way, but he resists the urge letting Roy do it for himself.
“Do you want to get divorced?” Roy asks and if Jason didn’t know better he’d think Roy sounded almost sad about the idea.
Does Jason want to get divorced? Well that’s a loaded fucking question. Does it have its uses? Yes, plenty of them, the tax benefits since he’s unfortunately not legally dead anymore are nice and the initial reasoning of not having to testify against one another can always be useful in their line of work.
Of course it’s not necessary, it was an emergency situation after all. So logically divorce makes sense, Jason doesn’t want a sham marriage to keep him out of going to prison to be a hindrance to Roy if he did meet someone he wanted to marry one day.
Jason’s traitorous heart that he’s at least willing to admit to himself is most likely a little bit in love with Roy however says fuck no. Stay married, keep Roy close, keep him as close as you can without getting as close as you want because you can’t have that. Play it off as beneficial to the work.
He listens to his traitorous heart.
“I mean I can’t promise I won’t get arrested again and you won’t be a witness to the crime I committed,” he says playing it off as casually as he can with a shrug.
Roy smiles up him, his eyes lighting up in the glow of the tv. “Great, marriage stays then. Wouldn’t want you getting carted off to max security, I’d be the one that would have to break you out. That’s too much work,” he says shifting his attention back to the movie. Jason just shakes his head finally paying attention to the movie again himself.
“Besides,” Roy says a few minutes later. “I’m kind of enjoying telling people that the tall hunk with the mysterious white streak in his hair is my husband, makes all the other girls jealous.” Roy says it with a little laugh, a tiny smile at the corner of his lips as he reaches up and taps Jason on the chest playfully.
And God if only Roy wasn’t joking when he said that.
***
Roy tries not to seem too overjoyed as more and more time passes and Jason never brings up the prospect of divorce again. They’re still just Roy and Jaybird, but they happen to be married and if Roy can revel in that little romantic notion even if it’s not really all that romantic, well he’s going to keep on happily doing just that. Except in moments like this where he deeply understands the for better and for worse part of the wedding vows they took, because boy, does Jason love to test that for worse sometimes.
“Another explosion!” Roy shouts, dusting the ash from his suit. Tim and Stephanie travel along behind them doing the same as they all slow from the run they’d been in fleeing from the scene. “Why do you keep blowing things up, Jason! Can’t you just fire a warning shot or something, not a warning explosion.”
Jason sighs pushing back his hood. “I didn’t do it on purpose,” he shouts back coming to a stop when he reaches their stashed motorcycles. Roy begrudgingly has to admit that’s true; he and Tim had been a few short seconds from remotely defusing the bomb Black Mask’s goons had left on the docks when one of Jason’s bullets had ricocheted hitting the explosive head on while he and Stephanie fought off the last of the goons.
“This time!” Roy shouts back huffing when Jason slings a leg over his bike and gestures for Roy to get on the back. “This is why I said we need to get out of Gotham, there are way fewer explosions in Star City!”
“Says the guy carrying around a quiver filled with explosive arrows,” Jason says once again gesturing for Roy to get on the back of the bike. “Also, you always want to leave Gotham about 30 seconds after we get here.”
“Exactly!” Roy shouts back. Stephanie and Tim both giggle off to the side where they’re sitting on Stephanie’s bike happily watching Jason and Roy’s squabble.
“You two bicker like an old married couple,” Tim says putting his arm around Steph’s waist as she moves the bike up beside them.
“Well, he is my husband, unfortunately,” Roy says not meaning the unfortunate part at all as he slips onto the back of Jason’s bike with an annoyed huff. Jason chuckles reaching back and elbowing Roy playfully in the stomach. Roy feigns injury holding his stomach delicately.
“I’m sorry, did you just say husband?” Tim says practically falling off the back of the bike. Stephanie holds onto him righting him as he looks between the two of them a little frantically, then back to her. Stephanie just shrugs.
“Obviously,” Jason says not really paying attention to his brother, eyes focused on the smoke drifting over the horizon. Tim continues to eye them frantically.
“Obviously, how is that obviously?” he says once again looking to his girlfriend who seems completely unphased by the situation. “Three months undercover and you don’t bother to tell me you have a husband now? I mean damn Jason; I am your brother.”
Oh, right. Tim and Stephanie have no idea, they’ve been deep undercover chasing down the Penguin for months. Roy had just assumed that the superhero gossip grapevine had made its way to them.
“It’s not a big deal,” Jason shrugs slipping his hood back up.
“Not a big deal?” Tim says leaning over from Steph’s bike to poke his brother in the arm finally earning Jason’s attention. “I didn’t even know you were gay and now here you are married to Roy Harper!”
“Maybe don’t shout my real name so loudly in public, secret identity dude,” Roy says butting in to the middle of this brotherly discussion. Tim waves him off apologetically.
“How dare you assume I’m gay, as a bisexual man yourself in love with a bisexual woman you should know better than to assume,” Jason says seriously and Tim freezes.
“I didn’t-, that’s not-,” Tim sputters Stephanie laughing at her boyfriend not helping him at all as he scrambles.
Jason laughs revving the engine and dropping the kickstand. “I’m just fucking with you little brother, I’m gay,” he says before hitting the gas.
“That’s doesn’t explain how you guys got married!” Tim shouts over the sound of the roaring engine. Roy just barely hears Stephanie’s response something akin to ‘so many things about them explains why they got married.’ His brain is too fuzzy with the first verbal confirmation that Jason could theoretically, through simply the possibility of the gender he’s attracted to be into Roy. He’s always had an inkling that Jason wasn’t straight, there was the lack of commitment with his past relationships and the fact that he spent months alone with a literal princess on a beach and didn’t even think to make a move. But Roy hadn’t wanted to assume, all of those things could have easily been written off as a part of Jason’s complete lack of desire to make real human connections.
Evidently his first inkling, his first hope, had been right. His little bisexual heart is aflutter with the possibilities, with the fact that his husband is gay and confident enough in the fact to drop it so casually.
Roy’s distracted the rest of the night watching Jason, paying special attention to the way Jason glides his hand over Roy’s shoulders when he’s checking him for injury. He can’t help but hone in on the points where Jason’s side leans into his as they make dinner in the cramped safehouse kitchen.
His mind doesn’t really drift from anything but the hope of something until he checks his phone hours later, a series of texts from Stephanie catching his attention.
Tim says he’s sorry he assumed, also welcome to the family-ish.
Oh, and is ‘married for the criminal benefits’ what the kids are calling in loooovvveee these days???
Roy shuts off his phone tossing it onto the coffee table just as Jason steps around him careful to keep the screen out of his sight. He hates that Stephanie sees right through him, they’re too damn alike she and him. They really need to get out of Gotham, at least in Star his siblings are nice enough to not point out that he’s in love with Jason. They talk about it behind his back, like a good family would.
Jason steps around the couch falling into the cushions at the other end. “We need to get out of Gotham,” he says reading Roy’s mind. Roy turns his way eyes a little wide, but his expression schooled, Jason better not have developed the ability to read minds there’s too much embarrassing stuff going on in Roy’s head.
“International job?” Roy asks.
Jason shakes his head the little tuft of white hair falling into his eyes. “Nah, haven’t heard anything, just going a little stir crazy being stuck here and under investigation all this time.”
Roy hums in understanding. “It’s been a while since I’ve been back home,” Roy suggests, Jason turns his head to look at him. “Plus, the family hasn’t gotten to give us congratulations on our nuptials yet.”
Jason snorts out a laugh. It’s unfairly cute. “I don’t think anyone in your family will be congratulating us,” he says.
Roy just shrugs. “It’s not like they don’t all already know. Dinah is the most supportive parent in the world, even for a fake marriage she’s probably been waiting to give us a wedding gift,” he says knowing that’s actually one hundred percent true. She texted him about it not three days after word had gotten to them about the marriage.
Oliver had lost his mind while Dinah bought a gift. Very in character for the both of them.
“Trading the gloomy Gotham rain for the slightly less gloomy Star City rain sounds okay to me then,” Jason says turning his attention back forward kicking his feet up on the coffee table.
Roy leans forward grabbing the remote to their shitty little tv flicking it on and flipping through the channels eager to see his family and hoping they make for a solid distraction from his whole in love with husband situation.
***
“You know,” Connor says swinging his legs and back and forth on the ledge of the building. Roy does the same eyes trained on the door their intel says their target will be coming out of at some point tonight. “I didn’t think Kyle felt remotely the same about me as I did about him for a long time.”
Roy shifts his eyes to his brother. “Well, clearly you got that wrong,” he says with a playful punch to his shoulder.
“Yeah and I think you might be wrong about thinking Jason doesn’t feel the same way too,” Connor says simply his eyes still trained on the door watching as each patron files out.
“What?” Roy says his attention back on his brother. “I don’t know what you’re talking about? Jason? There’s no feelings,” he scoffs. He tugs on the little gold loops he’s started wearing in his ears again, a nervous habit from his past coming back without a hat on tonight.
“Roy,” Connor says matter of factly turning to face him. “You’ve been back home for two weeks and anyone with a braincell can tell you both enjoy the whole fake marriage thing a little too much.”
“It’s funny,” Roy defends weakly. It’s a terrible defense, yes it’s funny, but playing it for laughs doesn’t mean lingering when they touch or staring maybe just a little too long when Jason isn’t paying attention.
He’s caught. But he really did think his siblings would have the decency to let him quietly stew in it.
“I mean, yeah it was funny at first when we heard about it, but dude,” Connor says giving Roy a ‘come on now’ look. “If you weren’t already married, I’d be telling you to get to it.”
Roy runs a hand through his hair and sighs. “Ugh, fine you got me. I’m into my husband. It’s fine I’m dealing with it.”
Connor chuckles eyes shifting back to the door again when he hears it open. It’s not their guy.
“If by dealing with it you mean making moony eyes at Jason 24/7 and doing absolutely nothing else about it, then yes you’re totally dealing with it,” he says sarcastically.
“And what the hell else am I supposed to do it about it?” Roy says gesturing with his hands wildly.
“Here’s a crazy idea, tell him,” Connor says like that’s the easiest thing in the world. Roy can’t just tell Jason. It’s complicated.
“I can’t just do that. It’s different, we’re different,” Roy says pulling at the strap of his quiver. “Jason’s been through a lot and it’s not like I can just tell him how I feel, it’s not that simple.”
“You’ve been through a lot too, Roy,” he says laying a hand on Roy’s shoulder. “And it is that simple, trust me.”
Roy shakes his head. “He doesn’t feel the same.”
“Roy he literally has stayed married to you for months now despite not really needing to, you guys live together, you shared a bank account a long time before the faux marriage began, he lets you call him Jaybird, he lets your tactile ass all up in his space,” Connor lists off ticking each fact off on his fingers. “Oh, and of course you don’t see the moony eyes he gives you when you’re not looking.”
“He gives me moony eyes?” Roy says a little disbelieving. He knows they’re close, that Jason trusts him a lot more than he trusts anyone else, but moony eyes? There can’t be moony eyes.
“Roy,” Connor says making it sound like Roy is particularly stupid. “Just tell him already, man. He was raised by the Bat there’s no way he’s gonna be the first one to say how he feels.”
“Oh,” Roy says.
“Yeah, oh,” Connor says with a laugh. He straightens up when the door swings open again, their target stepping out. “We’re up.” Connor says standing to his full height as the guy they need to shake down for information makes his way through the alley all alone.
Roy shifts into full Arsenal mode shooting out a hook and following his brother down into the alleyway, the realization that maybe it’s time to finally do something about him and Jason simmering at the back of his mind.
***
Jason’s not quite sure how he keeps getting an invite to Arrow family dinners ever since they got to Star City.
Yes, he’s technically part of the family now, but not really. And yet, every dinner without fail Dinah is stressing to Roy that Jason tag along as well.
He stays quiet through the course of the meals, happy to sit there and just watch Roy be happy. After dinner is different though, he was raised by Alfred Pennyworth and he knows that a guest must always offer a helping hand when a meal is done.
So he does the dishes every single time no matter how much Oliver fusses that he doesn’t have to, passing them to Dinah to dry in comfortable silence with some hard rock music he doesn’t recognize playing softly around them.
“Ollie and I went to this restaurant the other night that does tapas, not too fancy, but still romantic enough. You should take Roy sometime, he’d love it,” Dinah says drying one of the last plates.
Jason freezes in his process of cleaning an obscene number of mustard stains from Mia’s plate, why the girl insists on slathering her chicken in plain yellow mustard he’ll never know.
“We don’t do like, romantic, that’s not really-we’re not,” he says struggling to find the words.
“You should take Roy sometime,” she says pointedly her eyes locked on Jason’s each word being said with purpose. And oh, oh, she knows. She sees right through him. Dammit, he’s getting sloppy, he used to be so good at showing absolutely no emotion and now here he is being blatantly called out for his feelings by his husband’s mother figure.
What a dumb sentence that is. He should have just gotten the divorce, then he could have just kept pushing his feelings down and away and ignoring them like he had been. Not thinking about how their little marriage jokes make his heart beat a little faster and how Roy’s gotten impossibly even more touchy since he told him it would be beneficial to keep the marriage going.
Jason swallows hard cleaning off the last of the plate and passing it to Dinah.
“I don’t know if he’d like that,” Jason settles on saying, not bothering with outright denial when he knows he’s been found out.
Dinah finishes drying the plate placing it in the rack with the other dishes. She brushes her hands off on the towel before tossing it over Jason’s shoulder.
“He’d love it, dumbass,” she says patting him on the shoulder before walking away.
Jason stands there his hands still dripping wet feeling slightly threatened and more determined than ever to sort his feelings out.
***
“I cannot fucking believe you!” Roy shouts for what feels like the fiftieth time.
Jason rubs at his head, mindful of the long stretching cut across his forehead, one of the many new cuts and bruises lining his body.
“If you’re gonna keep yelling at me I’m gonna need some more aspirin,” he groans.
Roy tosses the bottle at him, hitting him square in the chest right above the large bandage that’s covering a particularly large gash.
“Ow,” he says rubbing at his chest before bending over to grab the fallen bottle of pills. He winces at the motion his fingers just grazing the bottle.
“Shit, sorry,” Roy says rushing over to his side delicately pushing him back upright and grabbing the bottle sitting it on the nearby coffee table.
“For the yelling or throwing things at me?” Jason says with a pained smile.
“Throwing things. The yelling is justified,” Roy says staying crouched on one knee in front of Jason, he leans back a bit resting an arm on his thigh.
Jason sighs. “Look I’m sorry I saved your ass; I won’t do it next time.”
“I had it under control, you didn’t need to push me off the side of a building that was falling down and not join me on the lone grappling hook,” Roy argues. He runs a hand through his hair simultaneously frustrated and relieved that Jason’s even here. When the building went down all Roy could see was the red of him disappearing under the rubble. When he and Ollie had finally dug him out it was a miracle Jason was breathing, let alone that all he had was few broken ribs and a lot of ragged cuts.
“Come on Roy, I’m like a cat, I just keep coming back,” Jason says trying to reassure him.
“You’re not the only one who’s died and come back, it doesn’t mean you get to risk it time and again!” Roy says. “I don’t want to end up a goddamn widower.”
Jason chuckles at that and Roy pushes at his knee, one of the few unbruised spots on his body.
“I’m not joking here Jay, I don’t know what the fuck I would do if something happened to you,” he says his voice painfully sincere, his blue green eyes wide and pleading. It hits them both in that moment that neither of them ever did do anything about the feelings they’d been so blatantly called out about.
“I’d be ruined if you died Roy. I already was once, that’s why I do shit like that. It’s why I take risks like that, for you,” Jason says fiercely. Jason doesn’t talk about the time when Roy died, about how he mourned, about how he took out that anger and grief on a lot of criminals and a few people who didn’t deserve it as well. And then Alfred died and the cycle just started all over again, the grief twofold.
Roy shifts forward settling on both knees placing himself almost directly in Jason’s space.
“Well, that’s very romantic Jaybird, but how about we both try not to die in general,” Roy says his hands hovering over Jason’s thighs for a moment before he makes a clear decision dropping them warm and heavy against Jason’s thin sweatpants.
“Seems the reasonable thing for a married couple to agree to,” Jason says leaning forward just a bit.
Roy chuckles lightly. “Yeah, you know about that,” he says pausing to take a deep collecting breath and Jason braces himself. He’s pretty certain after everything that’s just been said Roy isn’t about to say it’s time they got that divorce, but he’s always a little bit prepared for disappointment when it comes to someone sticking around.
“I mean it when I say I like being married to you, yeah the jokes are fun and the benefits do exist, but I can’t stay married to a man I’m in love with without him knowing,” Roy says his voice determined and ready for anything.
Jason reaches out his fingers gripping onto the lapels of Roy’s flannel shirt.
“You’re in love with me?” he says a little stunned. He knew especially after his encounter with Dinah that there was maybe something there, but he didn’t realize just how much.
Roy nods his head, his hands moving lightly up and down on Jason’s thighs now. “Yeah, Jason. I am and I get it if you don’t feel the same, but Connor was right I can’t keep acting like it’s not true. So there it is.”
He swallows nervously his eyes straying from Jason’s.
“No. I mean, yes,” Jason shakes his head collecting his words. “I mean that I do feel the same. I love you,” he says the last three words on a whisper nervous to say it even if Roy already said it first. “I just didn’t think it was the same for you.”
“It’s been the same for me long before you proposed,” Roy says his eyes falling back on Jason’s, a handsome smile creeping onto his face.
Jason smiles back even if the movement hurts a little with the bruise forming on his cheek. “I didn’t do that to trap you just for the record, I really did want to make sure I didn’t go to jail. Keeping you a little closer was just a quiet bonus, I didn’t think of until after.”
“It’s okay,” Roy says lifting up on his knees placing him and Jason practically nose to nose. “I like that it kept you a little closer too.”
Jason lets out a little relieved breath his nose bumping with Roy’s, they’re so close together now.
“Can’t believe my husband was in love with me this whole time,” he says with a chuckle. Roy laughs as well purposefully moving his nose against Jason’s.
“Yeah we could have consummated this marriage the whole time if we had just talked?” Roy says in love and laughing just a bit at the whole ridiculousness of the situation.
“Well, I don’t think I’m in any condition to be consummating anything right now, so that’ll have to wait,” Jason says with a chuckle lifting his less battered arm to run his fingers through Roy’s hair.
Roy lets out a pleased hum, his face moving mere centimeters from Jason’s. “I could kiss you for now though, right?”
Jason simply nods and Roy takes that as his opening moving in and pressing his lips to Jason’s. They move together smooth and slow, like this is practiced, like they’ve done this a hundred beautiful times before.
The kiss doesn’t last for long, the cut in Jason’s upper lip screams at him close to reopening and forces them apart. Roy runs his thumb along the cut delicately.
“You know Dinah told me about this restaurant she thought I should take you to,” Jason says his hand slipping down to rest on Roy’s chest just above his heart.
Roy smiles bright and wide his hair all kinds of messed up now from Jason’s fingers. “Are you asking me on date?”
Jason huffs out a tiny laugh, “Well I figured since I married you and didn’t even buy you a coffee before the ceremony I could fit the bill for a nice dinner.”
“First comes marriage, then comes first date,” Roy says with a lilting laugh pressing his forehead to Jason’s. “I’m so lucky I fell in love with my husband.”
***
Connor has gotten used to walking into Roy and Jason’s place without knocking, he’s a frequenter there when he needs a break from Ollies attentive, but occasionally overbearing mothering or when they work together on a new case.
It’s been two weeks since a building fell on Jason and he hasn’t been around much lately, listening when Roy told him that Jason needed his rest no matter what he said.
“Hey guys, I know Jason is still healing but Kyle’s not back till next week and I love dad, but I do not have it in me to go to another chili festival this weekend,” he shouts as he shoulders through the door. He passes through the entranceway freezing in place and shielding his eyes instantly when the couch comes into sight.
“Oh, god!” he shouts stumbling backwards and running into the wall. He never ever needed to see that much of his brother.
He hears a few curses and the shuffling of pillows. “You can open your eyes, Connor,” Roy chuckles. And while Connor trusts that they’re covered in all the important places he has no intentions of moving his hand until he’s back out the door.
“No, thank you,” he says stumbling towards the door. He hears Jason’s laugh, deeper than Roy’s, when he knocks into something hanging on the wall. “Sorry,” he says lowering whatever it was to the ground backing into the door fumbling until he finds the doorknob. He yells their presumed way one last time before he pushes it open, making his escape, “I’m going to go bleach my eyes out, but I’m very glad you figured out your husband is in love with you too.”
***
“Well he’s scarred for life,” Roy chuckles when Connor has firmly shut the door and probably run halfway across town already.
Jason just shrugs, Connor’s the one who pushed Roy to finally say something he should have predicted that knocking might become a necessity. “This is the first day in weeks I haven’t felt like one walking bruise, so can we continue to consummate this marriage all over the apartment before our reservations tonight?”
Roy hums with a wide smile kissing Jason just right. “Absolutely, husband of mine.”