#me?? writing jayrae that /isn't/ red x involved?? less likely than u think

[squiddybeifong]

could you write a Jason/raven with a jealous jason?

Green

–

They had started a schedule of sorts for when and where they met.  

Mainly on Wednesdays (they both got so angsty on Wednesdays), always on the rooftops as far from the Tower’s vantage point as possible, and never in civilian clothes. It was more than ridiculous (and risky, and dangerous), but it worked for them.

Raven was casually sitting in the shadows when he teleported in front of her, his boots landing on the gravel as silently as the demoness’ magic curled the darkness all around her. She looked up, her amethyst eyes blank as Red X languidly plopped down on the ground next to her.

The shadows shifted, covering him too. Once the dark properly shielded them both he yanked off his mask, not bothering to spare a look her way as he roughly rolled his shoulders. He was injured, but nothing too bad. She’d heal him before they split ways.

Nodding to herself the empath took a deep breath, feeling the harsh press of his emotions. His anger was prominent and pulsing; it had been there since his last fight with the rest of her team at the museum. It was an odd addition compared to his usual teasing whenever he stole in their city, one that Robin merely wrote off to the unexpected sixth Titan that joined them that day. But there was something else…

An emotion Raven knew, but didn’t want to acknowledge just yet. Not when she didn’t even know why she had allowed this… acquaintanceship between them to blossom as it had.

Instead, the demon merely reached up to unclasp the pendant around her shoulders, silently spreading her cloak out like a blanket. The roof was rough on her knees as she laid the material down, not letting anything touch Jason as she let a splattering of the city’s lights fall onto her. Most was from the hint of streetlights and the pitiful glow of the stars past the light pollution, but at least the half moon shone bright as ever. The hero laid on her back on the right side of the blanket, aiming her gaze to the sky, rarely free of clouds.

She didn’t speak, not even when he pulled off his cape and scooted next to her, the aesthetically tattered material falling in the small space between them and brushing her legs. Jason let out a sigh as he pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his belt, resting his elbow on his knee as the girl’s gaze fell on him. “Don’t,” He warned.

The feeling of her eyes left him and the sound of his lighter opening filled the air. She turned back to the sky, her lips quirking down at the sight of an abandoned crow’s nest a few buildings away, “Smoking’s bound to slow you down, but that’s an advantage to me so…” Raven shrugged one shoulder, letting him be.

They sat in silence for a few long minutes, hearing the clamor of the nighttime traffic and the shrieks of horns honking. Raven’s lips curled in a smirk and Jason snorted as tires squealed to a stop and an indignant “Watch it, dipshit!” filled the air.

Red X tilted his head back and let out a puff of smoke, not-quite-glaring up at the same stars she fondly observed. He turned to look at her as she shifted, bringing her knees up as she got used to the feel of the pebbles that littered the roof and hid under her cloak. Pale thumbs rubbed together and Jason waited for her to speak.

Raven swallowed the air in her throat, her mind going back to their interaction at the museum. Her cheeks still smelled of the adhesive that his X was plastered with and the mage’s nose scrunched up in thought. She knew that Jason knew what her mind was on, how he had stumbled when a certain archer had caught her in his arms and easily flirted with her as they resumed their Titan duties.

She had felt his anger then and that same tension was growing now as he waited for her to broach the subject. Amethyst eyes closed and Raven got comfortable on her cloak, not knowing how this conversation would go.

“You know,” She drawled out a few seconds later, her fingers brushing aside a fly and then immediately lacing above her stomach, “What with the eyes and the scaly panties, I would’ve thought green would be your color.”

He ignored the implication of her words, “Guess not.”

Jason’s hands motioned to the X on his chest, “I prefer red.” He roughly tapped the cross above his heart as if he thought she was slipping up if she couldn’t notice, his mocking smirk not holding its usual bite.

She merely blinked at him, her attention briefly going back to the sky as a plane flew past the moon, only lit up by its outside lights. Jason looked to where she did and Raven turned back to him, silently taking everything in about the fallen Robin.

His chin was set with the jumble of emotions that rolled off him and the empath tried her hardest to not recognize how positively gorgeous he looked. Unfortunately, Jason was as arrogant as he was perceptive; he’d notice if she let her mind wander too much. But still, she wondered what his hands looked like. He had alluded to the damage caused by scratching his way out of his own grave once in the now numerous times they had met over this past year, but she’d yet to see anything but his face.

She wondered if he had an autopsy scar, if his concealing uniform hid all the other evidence of what the Joker did to him. She thought about what he did when he wasn’t committing crimes; when they’d first met and he was still Robin, he’d been so interested in her books that scattered her bookshelves and random desks throughout the Tower alike. He still was if their prior talks meant anything, but she’d never gotten a chance to know what his old favorites were.

Raven’s face was stoic as ever as her gaze deepened, her pupils wide as she tried to figure out all that she could with what he was giving her. Red X wasn’t nearly as obnoxiously open as Robin had been and she didn’t know if she preferred that or not. He shot her a look but her stare continued, even as his attention went to the bustling city below.

That jealousy was still there, but it lessened with the attention she was giving him now. If they hadn’t been on opposite sides of the law, she might’ve actually allowed herself to ponder why that was. As it stood, the mystic figured he at least deserved an explanation, “He’s an old friend of Robin’s, you know. Used to be Green Arrow’s sidekick but he’s part of Titans East now. Just came down for a visit.”

Jason’s lips tried to smirk, but from her angle it looked more like a sneer, “Good to know.”

A tongue darted out to wet her lips. She didn’t take her gaze off of him, noting what she could about his body language, so much more closed off from their other visits. A breath escaped Raven, then, “We may not be friends, but you can always just say that you’re jealous.”

A harsh bark of laughter rumbled out of him. That messy mix of emotions hit her empathy again, intensifying to the point that she had to squeeze her eyes shut as he turned to look at her, “Did you hit your head with that last X? I’m never jealous.”

She raised up on an elbow, biting the inside of her cheek as she thought her actions over. They could both teleport at a moment’s notice and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to press him too hard, lest he leave until she was equally ready to ignore the issue. Ironic, coming from her of all people.

But Raven sat up regardless, adjusting herself until she was cross-legged. Their knees brushed and she looked down into her lap, her lips curling at the sight in her periphery of some apartment windows going dark with the late hour. She noted but didn’t comment as he crushed one cigarette and replaced it with another, visibly annoyed when she didn’t speak.

After a pause, Raven made up her mind. She turned to him but he didn’t look in her direction. Instead he was haughty, “Ready to admit you were wrong?”

She ran a tongue over her teeth, “Come on, Jay.”

He bristled at the name, snapping his head towards and narrowing his eyes at her. Raven didn’t react to the hostility in his face or in his emotions, her own face as stoic as usual. Although the way he stared made her wish they weren’t sitting on her cloak; the shadows from the taller buildings around them helped but it wasn’t the same.

“You never–” He rubbed at a rough scar on his jaw, turning back to the scene beyond them. The cigarette’s end crinkled in his gloved fingers and he forced out, “I prefer when you call me Jason.”

He immediately caught himself, “Or Red X. Hell, even just X. But not that.”

Raven’s rebuttal was instant, “And I prefer when you can actually admit that you’re jealous of Speedy.”

He rolled his eyes and his shoulders, annoyance and frustration mingling with worry and concern. Then a wave of anger as he remembered she could feel all of what he did. “Seems you must not be as smart as I pegged you for,” He muttered, more to himself than to her.

Both her brows raised at him, the move as mocking as their unsteady companionship would allow, “I must be, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.” He frowned and the mage left it at that, her attention taken by the sound of two cars nearly colliding the next intersection over.

The agitated honking faded away and they fell into another silence, comfortable enough for enemies but tense compared to before.

Raven didn’t move, hardly even breathed as she took in the swirl of his emotions. She particularly focused on the ones he had shoved down, so unaware of how close they were to rising to the surface. A smile threatened her lips; what a Bat thing to do.

But he wasn’t a Bat anymore and the demoness let out a breath, unsurprised when Jason’s words hastily filled the air. They were rushed, as if he wasn’t sure if he wanted to speak them but equally worried about where they would stand if he didn’t. Still, he was uncharacteristically monotone, “He kept flirting with you during the fight.”

She shrugged, “You always flirt with Star when we fight.”

“But that’s just to piss off Dick, not to–” The anti-hero cut himself off, frustrated as he put out his cigarette on the roof’s dirty tiles. He turned his head to one of the buildings, glaring as he waved aside the smoke.

Raven raised her chin, not willing to let him try to delude himself. How much of that was for his sake or hers, the Titan really didn’t want to think about. She leaned forward until he couldn’t deny seeing her in his field of vision, throwing a pointed look into his face as she commanded, “Say the J word.”

He grunted and rested his weight on one palm behind him, refusing to acknowledge how close their fingers were to touching. Mossy eyes met hers, defiant but not denying that her assumption was correct, “You do it first.”

“Sorry, Jay,” For a stoic, she could be absolutely infuriating when she wanted to be. She paused, her jaw twitching as she scooted the tiniest half-inch closer. Neither reacted when their fingertips met but her eyes hardened, willing and unwilling to put a name to their situation this very night, “But I asked first, I get to hear you say you’re jealous first.”

He sneered at her, “I’m not jealous.”

“Of course you’re not Jealous. You’re Jay.”

A groan escaped and he tore his gaze away from her. He huffed once, twice, then ran a hand over his face, “You’re a real pain in my ass, Little Bird. Hope you know that.”

Raven didn’t respond to that non-answer. Instead, she took a quiet breath through her nose and jerked her hand away.

Jason’s face snapped to hers as she did and the mage let impulse lead her. She surged forward and grabbed his shoulders, pulling him down to quickly peck a scar on the corner of his mouth. He went still underneath her as she levitated closer and straightened her back, her eyes narrowing down at him.

She abruptly let him go and leaned back on her haunches as if nothing was amiss, although she positively savored the feeling of his surprise against her empathy. If anything, it drowned out the mix of horror and happiness that knotted in her stomach for actually doing such an act. Next to her gloved fingers twitched, wanting nothing more than to pull her back but he hesitated.

Raven crossed her arms over her chest, forcing herself to push forward while she didn’t harbor the same reluctance that he did, “Why were you jealous of Speedy?”

She watched his eyes roam her face and felt as that unusual indecision filled him again. A melody of feelings flew out of him: anger and surprise, lust and melancholy, hope and worry. The empath nearly buckled under the force and Red X sighed, some of the tension leaving his shoulders.

“Raven,” He started, saying her name slowly as if gauging whether or not she was okay with that. Jason bit his lip and watched as she watched the move, “You know exactly why I’m jealous.”

The hero silently looked him over, her eyes flicking up to where his eyes were usually hidden behind his mask. She chanted her mantra in her mind and forced herself to breath, turning her face back towards the old buildings around them.

He didn’t talk for once, all his attention on how she sat back down next to him, her fingers falling effortlessly in the spaces between his. Jason’s gaze was intense on her and she murmured quietly, “You know, I see why you don’t like green all that much, Jason.”

Amethyst eyes flicked from his face to his chest and back. A sigh escaped her, “Red’s more your color.”

“I dunno,” Jason shrugged, his confidence rearing its head again as he pressed their shoulders together, albeit not nearly as pompous as before, “I’m really getting used to purple, to be honest.”