Title: Standing Here Until You Make Me Move
Author: Foxy
Rating: PG
Character(s): Jason Todd, Roy Harper, mention of Koriand'r
Warning(s): Minor injury, slash
A/N: Characters belong to DC Comics. Lyrics from 'Hanging By A Moment' by Lifehouse
His fist curls the towel, knuckles white in their grip as another curse falls from Jason's mouth. A sharp slap on his arm reminds him to release the tension in his muscles and slowly he does so, letting his shoulders slump and go as lax as he can manage with a pair of forceps digging through the flesh of his left bicep.
Roy mumbles something that sounds suspiciously like 'baby' and keeps hunting for the bullet. Jason glares but says nothing, saving his voice instead for the next foul word that shoots out when Roy finally manages to clamp down on the mass of lead. It hurts sliding out, the sound wet and squelching. It's dropped with a small click in a shot glass and Roy sets the forceps down next to it.
The abandoned building they sit in is dilapidated and condemned, set for demolition within the month. But it's hidden away and empty, nondescript enough that they could pry the bullet from Jason's arm in relative peace. The gang will catch up to them soon, and they'll need to hightail it out of there and meet up again with Kory. But for now they can relax as Roy slaps a pad over Jason's wound and secures it with some spare gauze he had in his belt.
"Idiot," Roy says, tossing Jason's blood soaked jacket at him. The hole in the arm would need to be mended, the blood washed out as best as possible. Jason really likes this jacket.
"Am not," Jason retorts. He's grinning over at Roy, who busies himself with examining the fletching on his arrows.
"Are too." Roy doesn't even look up at him, indulging in the immature playfight simply out of boredom. He doesn't reveal how his heart jumped in his throat when he heard the explosion of the gun and saw Jason clutch his arm, red seeping through the brown leather of his jacket.
"It didn't hit the brachial artery," Jason says out of the blue, and Roy looks up to see his smile has dropped and his face is serious. "I'm not going to bleed to death, Roy. I'm going to be fine."
Damn that man for always knowing exactly what's racing through Roy's mind no matter how deeply Roy covers it up. He scowls down at his arrows, adjusting the fletching on one more harshly than he should. He doesn't hear when Jason gets up from his seat on an overturned crate and joins him on the broken bench next to him. Jason reaches over and takes the arrow from Roy's hand, setting it aside and grabbing gently on to one wrist.
"Roy," he says. "I've been beaten nearly to death with a crowbar, blown up, and I came back to life. A single bullet isn't going to take me out." He squeezes Roy's wrist softly and Roy finally looks away from their hands and up at Jason, finding him closer than he thought. "Nothing," Jason says. "Nothing is going to kill me again, I'm not going to let it. Especially now..."
Roy doesn't need to question what Jason means by now because the other man leans in just then and places his lips softly over his. Roy sighs quietly and presses back, his free hand lifting to cup the back of Jason's head and run his fingers through his damp black hair. As they kiss, Roy silently returns the sentiment. The world can come crashing down around them, but they're sticking together through it all.