A/N: Dunno what happened but I may have a new favorite character to write about. This is how I envision Roy and Jade in my imagination.
Title- Electrifying, Stunning, and Slightly Abhorring
Summary- This was not part of the plan at all. Well, not really. She didn't have a plan in the first place, but if she did, this would really not be in the checklist.
Characters- Cheshire, Roy Harper/Red Arrow, Mentions of unnamed Lian and other heroes/villains.
Genres- Drama, romance, angst, heart-felt.
Time- Mid-Season one and Pre-Invasion
She's at his apartment door in tatters and she really doesn't know why. He ushers her in and she ignores his questions of how she knew where he lived because that's not the she really wants to answer. (Even though it's the one she should answer.) What she really wants to know is why she is here.
She watches him open a cupboard and take out a small, cheap first aid kit from Wal-mart. She doesn't complain but the gash in her side does. White Willow had (Though she doesn't like to admit it.) had done a number on her. Cheshire knew that they had . . . 'creative differences', but White Willow didn't think she could go without a fight, did she?
Cheshire brushes her thoughts and questions of White Willow away, there's a lot things she asks but can never answer. She watches him again, once again, as he cleans the gash in her side. He gently swabs the dried blood way and she hisses when he pours alcohol over her wound.
"What are you doing?" Cheshire manages to get out through her blood-loss induced haze.
He looks up and sends her a pointed look. "I'm tending to your injuries." His fingers graze her skin gently (Something Cheshire is not accustomed to.) as he tapes a large piece of gauze over the flesh wound.
He moves to inspect the scrapes and cuts on the rest of her body. "No. Why are you helping me?" She slurs, her eyes becoming heavy with fatigue.
He doesn't answer and hastily tends to the last of the injuries. That's all the confirmation Cheshire needed.
She doesn't know when it happens but she starts staying at his place occasionally. After a particularly hard mission she would just go to his apartment. He would gently tend to her wounds and then she would flop onto his couch and sleep. (She would always make it a point to leave before he woke.)
But then, one time, she didn't. The night before she had fought Razorburn and unlike White Willow, he could throw knives. Just like he had several instances before, Roy patched her up and she crashed on the couch.
Except this time, she didn't wake up earlier than Roy, because he woke up earlier than her. "Knew you would try to leave." He says and lifts a carton of milk to his mouth. He takes a sip and frowns at her. "Jade," He uses her first name. "You got stabbed last night. Not cut. You can't leave until it has at least closed."
"You care?" She growls and he seems to know he is in dangerous territory.
She runs a hand through her blood matted hair and he lets out a gruff: "Of course not." She stands from the couch and stretches, ignoring the sharp pain from the two stabs in her gut.
"I'm getting in the shower." She makes her way to his room and Roy doesn't even bother asking how she knew the layout of his home. She grabs a large green shirt from his dresser and starts the shower in his bathroom. Inspecting herself in the mirror, she sighs, her eyes have dark purple rings and her outfit is stained scarlet, and most of all she's covered in bandages.
Carefully stripping off her dress, she steps into the shower, her bandages still on. She watches the blood wash down the drain. She uses his shampoo and body wash and steps out of the shower.
She rubs her hair with a worn blue towel and throws on the shorts she usually wears under her top and his shirt.
Once she exits the bathroom, the smell of bacon and eggs hits her and she takes a deep breath. Stepping into the kitchen, she sees Roy hunched over his stove.
A few minutes later they eat in silence and Roy doesn't question the fact she's wearing his shirt. Though Cheshire averts her eyes and looks down at her breakfast, poking it with her fork.
She leaves shortly after that, he doesn't stop her, probably because he knows he can't. But Cheshire can't help that small bud of disappointment that forms inside her when he says nothing as she leaves.
The full irony of things hits her when she starts sleeping in his bed and there's a ring on her finger. Oh yeah, and she's pregnant. This was not part of the plan at all. Well, not really. She didn't have a plan in the first place, but if she did, this would really not be in the checklist.
Well, at least falling in love with Roy Harper wouldn't be. And neither would the word 'pregnant', or the word 'married', or even the phrase 'pretend to be dead.'
Neither of them knows what happened. It just sort of did. They both just sort of went about their life. Roy was Red Arrow, hanging with the sidekicks, and Jade, well, became a mom and moved in.
All in all she found this new life she had was electrifying, stunning, and slightly abhorring. It a weird nice and cuddly way.
Jade didn't do nice and cuddly. She was a vicious assassin, not a soon-to-mother. (Yet the test and Roy Harper said otherwise.)
And yet she was still here and there was one question that Jade could never answer.
Why can't she stay away from Roy Harper?