My sister wanted me to write BlackX. In told her I would ruin them, but she didn't listen. She can't say I didn't warn her.

It's kind of short, but I didn't want to try writing people dancing. That's probably why this has such a sudden ending.

Title: Masquerade
Characters/Pairings: Red X, Jason Todd, Blackfire, Backfire/Red X
Summary: Jason had no idea why he was at some charity masquerade ball. Oneshot. Blackfire/Red X.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything.

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Jason had no idea why he was at some charity masquerade ball - he usually hated stuff like this. He had told himself that at the ball he would have a chance to steal something from the kind of stuck up rich families that visited these things to hide the fact that they hated 'filthy commoners', or something along those lines. Maybe he could get Kom a new necklace - God knows she would look better in them than some of these people.

But he was probably attending the ball because he just wanted to relax after the events of the last few days.

His black mask, which only covered one half of his face - not much of a mask, in his opinion - slipped every now and then in the most frustrating way, and every time he had to adjust it, he wondered why he didn't wear a mask that was at least vaguely similar to his Red X mask. At least that mask was comfortable. The suit he was wearing (it was a black tie event, so he had to wear a suit to get in) was also much too snug for his liking and he hated the thing.

He grumbled as he entered the large hall, the golden light of the chandelier illuminating the many masked faces around him - it looked slightly strange when the colour mingled with turquoises, greens and some pinks. Jason could almost feel the judgemental and suspicious looks being sent in his direction, maybe because his suit didn't look expensive enough (hey, he did only work in a music shop and he couldn't buy something with a jewel most citizens of Jump knew as stolen), or because his hair wasn't styled right. He mentally noted some of their faces and wondered if they had anything worth stealing - they obviously didn't deserve wealth if they were so quick to judge a book by its cover.

"Hey," A sickly sweet, flirtatious voice came from behind him, and when he turned he saw a girl about his age, blonde hair so puffed up in was like a yellow bubble around her head. Her eyes were a strange shade of blue that reminded Jason of a polluted sky. She was wearing a strapless dress so pink it almost hurt, and it, in his opinion, was much too... revealing to be something typically worn to events like this. She winked at him and grinned in a way that she probably thought was appealing. "You want to get a drink?"

Jason smirks at the girl, hands slipping into his pockets. He gave a shrug. She was confident, he'd give her that. Maybe a bit too confident - after all, she wasn't the most attractive girl he'd met. "No thanks, but nice try." He responded casually and walked away, pretending not to notice the shocked expression on her face.

He wandered somewhere near the center of the room, just outside the area that people had decided was where to dance. He sighed. The ball wasn't helping. He was an idiot for coming, though, right? It's not like a freaking charity ball would solve all his problems. How could it? He didn't even know anyone here - not like he would want to, most of them were egotistical upper class families that didn't mingle with the likes of him simply for his upbringing. Really, if they knew what his upbringing really had been like...

"So, who was that girl?"

Jason raised an eyebrow - he recognised that voice, and he was pretty sure that that voice was supposed to be somewhere near a jewelry store on the other side of Jump that night. He turned on his heel. Blackfire stood, arms crossed, purple mask obscuring the top half of her face. She was in a deep purple dress that reached past her ankles, but not enough to get in the way. It wasn't anything fancy - there were no expensive patterns, or styles, but Jason guessed that she chose it because it was exactly the same shade as the purple on her usual attire.

He grinned, raising an eyebrow (not that she could see that - his mask was in the way) and crossing his arms. "Do I detect a hint of jealousy in your tone?"

She scoffed, uncrossing her arms and standing a bit straighter. "Jealous of her? Did you see her hair?"

Jason's smirk widened and he cocked his head to the side ever so slightly. "So, what are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing." She replied breezily, taking a step towards him and shrugging. Jason considered trying to get more out of her, but knew that it wouldn't work. Kom almost never talked about things that she didn't want to. She was too stubborn for that. Suddenly, she softened. "So, did you...?"

"No." He said bluntly, tilting his head to look at the floor. "No, someone interrupted. I was so close to stopping him from hurting anyone else, from breaking apart another family... and the guards had to choose that time to come check on the patients." He had begun to spit out his words. "I managed to get away in time but..." He didn't need to finish for Blackfire to know what he meant. The Joker was still alive.

Deciding she should lighten the mood, she raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, since we're here, aren't you going to ask me to dance?"

Jason's eyes widened and, immediately forgetting the Joker, he shook his head. "Hell no. I don't dance."

Blackfire scoffed. "You expected to come to a ball and not dance?"

He considered this.

"Well, yes, actually."

She grabbed his arm and started pulling him towards the crowd of dancing party guests, half dancing like they were in a club and the other half looking at them like they couldn't believe they would be so common. "You're going to dance."

"No, I'm not." Jason insisted, trying to pull his arm out of her grasp knowing full well that she was stronger than him.

"You're going to dance or I tell Dick that you were the one that replaced his cereal with chilli."

He froze. "You're bluffing."

She grinned maliciously at him. "Remember the look on his face when he poured chilli into his milk? You couldn't stop laughing. I bet he'd just love to hear that."

"You don't even like Dick."

"So?"

He groaned, imagining the Hell that would break loose if she told him. He would never hear the end of it. He buried his face in his free hand and sighed. "Fine. I'll dance."

Komand'r's grin turned triumphant and she continued to pull him into the crowd, the dread evident on his face amusing her even more. She laughed when he looked between her and the club dancers. "You expect me to do that?" He asked skeptically.

She nodded, glowing.

And despite himself, he smirked. "I am so giving you Hell for this later."