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interlude, kori: better than the sum of our parts
The Outlaws happened by accident.
Jason tried to fight it out of instinct, but he was no match for the sheer power of Kori and Roy’s immediate and unyielding loyalty. He was wrongfooted from the get-go, thrown off balance by Kori’s kindness during his convalescence following the submarine incident, an imbalance that only grew when Roy joined the picture.
He hadn’t planned on Roy staying, but then he hadn’t counted on mounting a rescue and causing an international incident when he’d seen Roy’s undefeated smile on his television, beaming bright underneath the bruises and broken nose.
No, Jason had simply seen a hero about to die again in a godforsaken desert and no one seemed to be doing a damn thing about it.
Well, fuck that. Jason would be dead, again, before he let that happen.
Seeing Roy was like a punch to the gut, later, when Jason finally could take a second to process the sudden influx of people in his life. He hadn’t known Kori from before, not really, and whatever bits of insight he had were lost in the face of her memory issues.
Roy was a different ball of wax entirely. Neither of them were the boys they’d been years ago. It didn’t stop the flashes of nostalgia that occasionally levelled Jason in the quieter moments. Sometimes Roy would tilt his head a certain way when he laughed, or Jason would watch him release five arrows in a single pull with such carefree confidence it struck him dumb. Suddenly he was thirteen again, awestruck in the presence of a childhood dream, a real Teen Titan standing before him.
Strangely, it didn’t hurt--not the way talking to Dick sometimes did, or the sting that came with the mention of Bruce’s name. He and Roy didn’t talk about their shared past very much, but it wasn’t avoided. They remembered the same hand signals, the same moves from the sidekick playbook. Roy didn’t talk about the Titans at all, but that was probably in deference to Kori more than Jason, or maybe for himself. Jason wasn’t sure what had happened to make Roy quit the team. If he were to ask, Roy would probably tell him it was the drugs, maybe the drinking, but Jason wasn’t so sure.
Jason knew drugs. Jason had loved his mom with every inch of his being and had learned the hard way what they could do. He’d also learned that people don’t do drugs without a reason.
Catherine Todd had been a bright, fast-speaking girl with big aspirations of making her parents proud by being the first in her family to go to college. She used to talk about it with him, dreamy on heroin and slipping into her native Spanish as she reminisced about another imagined life. She’d wanted to be a dentist ever since she saw Rudoph the Red-Nosed Reindeer as a kid. Willis Todd had set fire to that young girl at seventeen, Jason’s arrival soon after the nail in the coffin.
The thing that brought his mom low hadn’t been drugs, it’d been loss. Loss, grief, hopelessness, those were all the true killers. He remembered finding her cold on the bathroom floor that day, a small part of him secretly relieved that at least it was over for her. Maybe she was finally happy.
Jason didn’t know what darkness haunted Roy. He rarely saw it behind the friendly smiles and increasingly dangerous kitchen appliances Roy kept “improving” on, but he knew how depression operated, how it lay in wait. Jason roamed their tiny island most nights, keeping watch, and sometimes he’d hear Roy slip behind a closed bathroom door when he thought no one was around. He never checked in, never commented on Roy’s puffy eyes and red face when he emerged, only kept a watchful eye. It wasn’t like Roy was the only one who had a hard time sleeping.
He didn’t want to know, he told himself. Jason didn’t want to get to know these nice, messy people he found himself with, and he really hated the idea of being known. Red Hood was a boogeyman--calculating, violent, and inherently frightening because so little was known about him.
Jason was free when he was Red Hood, safe in the power he could wield behind the mask. There was none of that safety as Jason Todd, who liked to spend his downtime reading and bookmarked casserole recipes on his phone. Jason Todd liked being barefoot when he could and had a weakness for orange soda. These things were only doable behind the walls of a safehouse with military-grade security, not on a beached alien spaceship.
It didn’t help that Roy and Kori were so goddamn casual all the time. Kori seemed to view the entire ship as her personal bedroom, (and maybe technically it was by Tamaran standards, Jason didn’t know), eating and sleeping on whatever surface was available, discarded clothing left in trails along hallway floors.The first week Jason staked out one of the ship’s quarters as his own, desperate for a space that was his. Kori burned through the lock on his door within thirty seconds, bursting in with a worried look that immediately softened once she saw that he was safe inside.
“I’d thought the ship had malfunctioned, I am glad you are not in danger,” Kori had said in that warm, pleased tone that was so soothing it put him on edge. Jason had blinked, taken stock of his boxers and pajama top, and then lowered the gun he’d grabbed in a panic when the sparks started flying.
“Kori?” Roy had said, sounding farther down the hall. Jason had grit his teeth and put his back to them both, desperately looking for pants. “What’s going on? Oh! Hey, beautiful, remind me to talk to you about privacy and boundaries at some point.”
Kori gave Jason a very simple deadbolt from a smoldering hardware shop the next time they were on mission. It wouldn’t work on the door of a spaceship but Jason appreciated the gesture.
By default Jason took on the majority of the domestic duties of the ship, unable to think amidst the mess. Kori curiously followed him around as he cooked and cleaned, washed laundry, fascinated. Roy constructed a simple incinerator for their garbage, and Kori helpfully set a few pieces ablaze with her hands, delighting in their curious domesticity. She once spent an entire afternoon watching Jason mop inside the hanger before cheerfully volunteering to mop the ceiling.
Jason didn’t see the harm, she could fly. Roy took pictures.
And so it went. Roy handled gear and grill duties, Jason security and cleaning. Kori fetched fish from the sea (and one very confused dolphin who was immediately returned with a lot of shouting) and kept it all from falling apart.
Somewhere, despite Jason’s best intentions, somewhere between the All-Caste and space invasions and the fucking Joker, Jason Todd and the Red Hood blurred at the edges. He could see it in the books he’d left in the living room, could feel it under his toes as he walked the beach in bare feet, could hear it every time Roy slung an arm around his shoulder as they looked over schematics for the next job. What’s the plan, Jaybird?
And then...Kori left.
+
Jason shielded his eyes with one hand against the wind, peering past the clothesline where Roy’s horrific collection of tropical shirts fluttered in the breeze like demented flags. A storm was brewing in the east, most likely to make landfall in the morning, but for now the sky above him was clear and full of stars. Kori was leaving the ship to them, choosing to fly off to her new destiny under her own power, and with the storm coming it meant she had to leave tonight.
Destiny, she’d called it. Jason only heard the name Dick Grayson. Roy, silent and still, perhaps heard nothing at all.
Kori and Roy were down on the beach. There was the usual small fire built in the sand, casting the two of them in harsh oranges and sparkling blues as it flickered. Jason closed his eyes and listened to it crackle against the backdrop of the ocean waves, hearing only soft murmurs as Roy and Kori said their farewells. He didn’t want to look and he wasn’t sure why.
“Jason, stop being weird and come say goodbye,” Roy called out, and Jason opened his eyes at the watery tone in his voice. Jason breathed deep and walked over to them, pulling his jacket a little tighter around himself even though the air was still warm. Jason had spent a lot of time losing people in his life, but he’d never really gotten the chance to say goodbye to most of them before it happened.
Kori floated before him, her warm smile sad but Jason could see the excitement hidden beneath it. He tried not to hate it, he honestly couldn’t hate it. He knew Roy couldn’t either, all of them self-made in their own way, but he wasn’t sure how to handle the sting that came with change this time. Kori took his hands in hers, her large thumbs stroking over his knuckles soothingly.
“Jason,” Kori said, green eyes so full of love it almost hurt. Jason cleared his throat.
“Hey, Princess,” he tried, grinning crookedly. “I guess it’s time to say goodbye.”
“For now,” she promised solemnly. She reached up and brushed an errant curl from his forehead and Jason felt his whole heart seize. He was torn between looking away and staring at her until he went blind, not wanting to be here in this moment and not wanting it to pass. He could feel Roy beside them both, close enough he could sense the warmth of him, but Roy had his baseball hat pulled low to hide his eyes and Jason hated it.
“Don’t worry, this is something I must do. You will take care of each other,” Kori said gently, and at that Jason did have to look away. He didn’t know how the hell he was supposed to take care of anything. There was this overwhelming sensation filling him, foreign and suspect, and suddenly Jason was struck by how much he didn’t want her to leave.
Kori must have seen it in his face, because suddenly she pulled him close. He didn’t have time to even move, arms crushed between his and Kori’s chest as she clutched him to her.
“Oh, Jason,” Kori murmured, enveloping him tightly in a haze of strong and scorching affection. There was a hand in his hair and Jason couldn’t help but give in at the slight pressure, burying his head at the warm juncture of Kori’s throat and shoulder. Her curls tickled his nose as she moved to kiss his temple. Jason steeled himself to stay silent, filled with the sudden need to cry, which was objectively terrifying. The last time someone had held him this close he’d been fourteen.
Kori kept the firm grip on him with one arm, using her other to reach out to Roy. Jason kept his eyes stubbornly closed, breathing in the smell of Kori’s shampoo, but he felt Roy’s thick forearm settle around his waist as Kori pulled them both to her. “My boys,” she said, fond and happy, squeezing them tight. Roy made a soft sound at that, but if he was speaking Jason couldn’t make it out over the pounding of his heart.
Embarrassment finally snapped Jason out of his fugue. He wormed his way out of the embrace, ducking his head and taking a few steps back as Kori whispered something in Roy’s ear. Whatever she said sent Roy weakly laughing, and as they separated Jason watched Roy’s wet eyes close when Kori dropped a soft kiss on his brow.
Roy backed up a few steps to Jason’s left as Kori rose to the sky. He had his quiver slung over one hip, casual, reaching for his bow in the sand. “Ready for your send-off, beautiful?” Roy asked, smiling helplessly as Kori beamed at him. “Better get going, I’m pretty sure I shoot faster than you fly,” he teased, but it sounded like his heart wasn’t in it. Jason held in a flinch.
“Be kind to each other,” was all Kori said, looking down from the night sky. Her face was to Roy but Jason could feel the words sinking into his bones like a command. Against the stars she looked like a comet, volatile and astonishing.
“Stop stalling, Princess,” Roy said, and notched an arrow. Kori gave them one last fond look before she turned to face the sky. Jason watched them both looking to the horizon, each of them seeming much stronger in the moment than he felt--Kori weightless in the sky, facing her future head on, with Roy resolute and right behind her.
Jason watched Roy’s muscled back flex as he released the first arrow. A brilliant burst of light erupted in the sky, separating into a circle of bright white dots as the explosion thundered. Kori zoomed to meet it, the crackling center of a sunburst, her palm outstretched to catch the last bit of phosphorus before the firecracker winked out. From a distance, Jason could hear her laughing.
Roy fired arrow after arrow, each one farther than the other. Light rippled away from them, dancing across the surface of the water and the night sky. Kori darted through the cacophony as she flew, spinning between each burst with delighted flourish as she grew smaller and smaller to Jason’s eyes.
Finally, when Jason could barely make out the tail of her fiery hair, Roy notched an obscene amount of arrows and released them directly overhead. Jason looked up in awe as the words Bon Voyage sparkled in the moonlight above them, great blooms of red and orange and pink exploding in the air.
When Roy finally lowered the bow, Jason could make out the wet streaks down his face and neck in the soft glow of the fading sparks that fell around them. After a moment’s hesitation he made himself move, stepping close enough to Roy that their shoulders touched. The sensation seemed to make Roy remember himself and he wiped hastily at his face, knocking the bill of his baseball hat askew. A few strands of hair tumbled out, blood-red in the light of the fire.
“Well, now I feel like an asshole. I didn’t even get her a card,” Jason said gently, trying to diffuse the tension that seemed to be growing every minute without her. Roy huffed and wiped his face again, this time grabbing his hat and shoving it into his back pocket.
Jason looked back up to the sky, now seemingly so foreboding and empty without Kori or Roy to light the way. “The fireworks,” he tried. “That was a really nice touch. Really nice.”
“Thanks, Jaybird,” Roy whispered, still staring out across the horizon. There wasn’t a follow up quip or even the suggestion of movement. The wind gusted across the beach and the flames of the fire cast them both in vivid shadow. Jason shivered, watching the goosebumps rise on Roy’s bare shoulders. Roy didn’t seem to notice the dropping temperature, eyes locked to the night sky.
“Do you want to stay out here for a little while?” Jason asked, forcing himself to relax as the discomfort welled within him. Be kind , Kori had said. Remember your ABCs , echoed Selina. “I can go get some blankets.”
Roy said nothing, but Jason caught the slightest uptick at the corner of his mouth. He watched Roy’s white knuckles relax around his bow.
I find marshmallows make everything better, Master Jason, came the last whisper.
Jason swallowed. “I’ll even make cocoa if you want.”
Roy’s eyes shut, and before Jason could worry about what wrong thing he’d done he felt the soft brush of hair against his cheek as Roy gently leaned his head against his temple. Jason lifted his arm to accommodate him and felt Roy’s arm slide across the small of his back. He made sure to keep looking out to the sea, ruthlessly staring down the night.
“Just...stay here for a moment,” Roy murmured, bow dropping in the sand. He sagged, suddenly, heavy against Jason’s side. Jason’s fingers deftly undid the buckle on Roy’s quiver so it too could fall, then pulled him a little closer. Roy sighed, head sliding into the crook of Jason’s neck but he didn’t cry, he didn’t move. Jason idly thumbed the cold skin on Roy’s bare shoulder.
“Sure thing,” Jason said, voice low and soft. He tried to think about another time he’d seen Roy silent, strings cut, and he couldn’t remember a single one. Roy’s fingers tangled in the hem of his jacket, knuckles pressed tight to the small of Jason’s back. “I’ve got you, buddy.”
The moon rose higher and higher above them as they stared across the waves. The fire behind them was dying out, giving way to the moonlight and shadows. Every once in a while Jason could feel the brush of Roy’s eyelashes against his neck.
“I could still go for that cocoa,” Roy said eventually, as the cold air rolling off the water sent them shivering. “If you’re still offering.”
Jason squeezed Roy’s shoulders and fought every soft thing inside himself, every fear, before giving up.
“Yeah, I’m still offering,” he said, turning his head so his words ghosted over the top of Roy’s red hair. “I’m not going anywhere.”
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