Title: Pulling a Ponyboy
Summary: Kori and Roy come home from a date to find Jason in the bathroom, 'bleaching the Batman' out of his hair.
Date: 26/01/14
Beta: Madigan (of Usagi Cosplay)
"Um… Jaybird?" Roy lowered his crossbow and moved out of the way so Kori could look in the bathroom as well.
Everyone had plans for the evening. Roy and Kori were going out for dinner and a movie and Jason was supposed to be skulking (Jason insisted patrolling) around Gotham for the night.
They weren't expecting anyone home when they returned.
So when they heard rustling in their bathroom, Kori and Roy had decided it was obviously an intruder lurking around their stuff. ("Who goes through a bathroom? Weirdoes.") The alien princess had armed herself with a Starbolt and the archer cocked his cross bow. They squeaked the door open to find—!
Their fearless –and shirtless- leader bent over the bathtub, washing Hydrogen Peroxide and Potassium Persulphate out of his hair.
"What are you doing?" Roy asked stupidly.
"What does it look like I'm doing, Harper?" he growled over the sound of running water. He let out a couple quieter curses and dumped a cup of water over his head, missing the very back.
"It looks like you're bleaching your hair," he started, totally letting down his guard and moving into the small bathroom to let Kori in. She sat down on the tub next to him and helped pour water over the back of his head. "But I know that's not what you're doing. Jason Todd –Red Hood – can not be bleaching his hair like Ponyboy in a hotel bathroom."
"Shut up, Harper," he growled, relaxing a bit and letting the Tamaranean finish rinsing the gritty crap out of his hair.
"Fine, fine," Roy muttered, unarming his crossbow and setting in on the floor beside them. "But why are you bleaching your hair?"
"I couldn't stand looking at him anymore." Roy and Kori paused at the defeated tone in their friend's voice. Kori recovered first, grabbing a small bottle of hotel shampoo and working it into the Outlaw's light hair.
"Who?" she asked softly, realizing she probably knew the answer.
"Bruce," he muttered quietly—so quietly Kori and Roy almost didn't hear it. "I ran into him and the demon-spawn downtown earlier."
"Didn't go so well?" Roy moved over to the toilet and sat on the cover.
"Stupid brat opened his big mouth and pointed out that Grayson, Timmy and I could be brothers—Bruce's kids." Roy took off his hat long enough to run his fingers through his hair tiredly before sliding it back on.
That was definitely one of Jason's buttons. He hated being compared to Dick before he died—now it was a thousand times worse. He had kept his inferiority complex toward the older Robin, and now he had an abandonment issue with his old-man too. He didn't like being compared to any of them. So of course Damian would point out the obvious similarities between the boys—probably just so the sadistic brat could watch him squirm.
"That kid has a big mouth," was all he could mutter.
"Yeah, well, I got tired of looking at them in the mirror." Kori draped a towel over his head so the younger man could stand up and dry out his hair. They watched quietly as Jason stretched his back out and lazily rubbed the towel on his head and they didn't say a word as he walked over to the mirror.
It was spotty at best. Pieces looked reminiscent of Roy's ginger hair, most was almost white and a bit was still pretty black—but he certainly didn't look like Bruce or Dick or Tim or Damian anymore and he was so happy about that, he didn't care that he looked like he let a 5 year old do it.
The lighter hair also made his flushed face even more red—go figure. He never wanted to hang his head over a bath tub that long again.
After deciding he was satisfied with it, he started scrubbing the water off his head with the towel again and turned to his partners.
"What are you two doing home so early anyway?" Roy and Kori shrugged. They were going to see a movie after supper, but after watching Dick and some redhead go in a head of them, Kori had lost any and all desire to enter the theatre.
"Just got bored. Figured we'd head here, order take-out or something and watch sitcom reruns." Roy took off his hat and shook his head, deciding to leave it off for the night. "You in?"
"You just went out for supper," Jason muttered, walking out of the bathroom and knowing the couple would follow him.
"Yeah… but it wasn't pizza," Roy said like it explained everything. Jason rolled his eyes but tossed him the hotel phone.
"Fine. No anchovies." Roy chuckled and nodded.
"And no onions please, Roy," Kori piped up from the bed. She reached across Jason for the remote and started flipping through channels.
"You know," he started, dialing the number and holding it to his ear. "I know you did it to 'bleach the Batman' out of you, but coming home to wet blonde in the bathroom was definitely a bonus to the evening."
Kori's giggles only got louder when a red faced Jason chucked a pillow straight into Roy's laughing one.
"Shut up, Harper!"
So, it's CRAZY how much difficulty I had, coming up with a title for a fic that took me an hour to write... But blaah! "In the Mirror" was the other choice.
