Ever since Jason’s been topsoil, he hasn’t bothered himself much with the simpler things. Slowing down meant free time and that meant his mind was lingering on stones better left unturned. In any case, he’s too busy setting snares all over Crime Alley—shouldering the Red Hood into a seat at crime’s table to do anything but keep running. He simply doesn’t have time for creature comforts, that includes the infrequent bodies that cycle his bed.

Jason’s been maneuvering life’s twisted game of chess since before he was five foot nothing and donning scaly shorts, and long after he intimately learned how six feet of earth felt pressed against his lungs. He hadn’t known the score back then, but he’ll be damned if lets himself be blindsided again. That means plans laid over contingencies upon contingencies. Jason doesn’t leave any loose ends, any easy threads to tug that might lead back to him.

Except for one. Just one nagging thing that throws his perfect comeback out of wack.

You’re a nobody, that’s his working excuse. A nobody with no connections to his ghosts or the person he is now. An indulgence that has no ability to hurt him or his plans, something he can come prod at when he feels like and bat away when normalcy and routine start to make him antsy. The two of you don’t share niceties or anything remotely personal. It works.

Jason tells himself it does. The less care the both of you have in each other the better; but, well, curiosity’s always been his vice. That and being unable to let go of a bone once he’s got it. The smudged remains of a poached Robin prove it.

There’s a knock on his door and Jason’s answering quick enough that he almost smacks himself. He’d been expecting this—you—something knotting and longing in his gut reminding him of just how long its been since his favorite indulgence graced his doorstep. The look he gets makes him panic, weighted and yearning.

He’s missed this—you.

Not that he’d admit it, speak it into the air and make it real. His hands come up to cradle your jaw and he doesn’t allow himself to feel relief when he kisses you.