"Ugh" Roy groaned as he and Cheshire returned to their hotel room after another long and, once again, unsuccessful night.
"What are you whining about?" Jade questioned as she removed her mask, "All we did was stake out an empty building."
When Roy didn't give an answer Jade tossed her mask onto the most likely bug infested bed and crossed the room. "Whatever, I'm going to take a shower," she announced, after spending the past four hours crouched behind a dumpster, she felt like she may as well have been sitting in it.
Once his girlfriend had occupied the room's tiny bathroom Roy crashed down onto the bed, however despite the fact that it was almost three in the morning and he hadn't slept in two days he refused to lie down. Instead he sat on the edge of the bed, mask no longer on his face, and began to think. It had been almost three years since he discovered he's a clone, and everyone but him had given up on Speedy. The league was willing to help at first, but after about six months he could see them beginning to give up. By the end of the first year most of them had and the search party had been diminished to Batman, Ollie, Dinah, and himself. The four of them had worked regularly on finding a lead for Speedy, and although Roy had no idea what he would do with his life after the found him, Ollie assured him that clone or no clone he would always be his son. Roy couldn't have been happier to hear that, but at the same time he and Ollie's relationship was still a bit strained and he had walked away from the older man.
He was lying anyway Roy tried to convince himself. That conversation had been roughly a year ago and since then the others, Ollie included, had given up the search.
Now it was just Roy himself.
Correction, it was Roy and Jade.
Roy wasn't sure how he ended up dating Jade, nor could he pinpoint exactly when it happened. Sure he could figure out the moment when he knew he loved her, but never the moment when the two became a couple. Still she was different than anyone and everyone else who had ever been in his life. The others had all given up, not just on Speedy, but on him as well. But Jade, she stuck by him. She isn't like the others. They all tried to help him by getting him to give it up, but Jade follows him without a word of protest. She understands that this is what he needs to do.
Roy chuckled silently to himself, remembering a conversation the two of them had not too long ago after yet another dead end.
The two of them were lying in bed, back at the abandoned apartment in D.C., which wasn't much better than the cheap hotels they often stayed in. Roy was awake and staring up at the ceiling while Jade lye on her side facing away from him.
"Why do you stick around?" He asked her
"What you mean?" Her tone implied that she was half asleep but he knows her to well, he knew that she was only pretending.
"You know what I mean Jade" he said and with a defeated sigh she rolled onto her back.
"You're stubborn Red, and this is something you need to do. I know I can't stop you, but I sure as hell can stop you from going alone" she said to him, that was when Roy knew, 100%, that he was in love.
"You better not break that" Jade's warning interrupted his thoughts when she saw that he was holding her mask, his thumb moving gingerly over the features of it.
Roy looked up just as she reached the bed. She picked up her backpack and began rummaging through it, no doubt for her hairbrush, and tried not to smile at the way her boyfriend was staring at her.
That was one thing she loved about him, just moments like this when she was wearing nothing more than a pair of too tight gym shorts and a tank top, not to mention still soaking wet, and he stared at her face. Sure there were always moments where he would stare at, something else, and she liked that too. It provided her with some pretty good jokes at the least. But moments like this, moments where not even she could deny that she was loved, that she appreciated the most.
"Are you going to shower or just sit there gawking?" She finally asked him because, really, she can't let him figure out how much she likes it.
"It's too late to shower" Roy complained, prompting Jade to glance at the room's digital clock and see that it was almost three in the morning.
"Too early you mean" she corrected and Roy only rolled his eyes
"Whatever" he muttered.
Finally locating her brush Jade began to rake it through her long, thick hair. She had never been particularly great at the art of brushing hair, and was never really good at getting out all the knots. She tried her best but it took a lot of effort and in the mirror she could see the reflection of Roy visibly flinching in the background at the ripping sound it made.
"How does that not hurt?" He asked her
"My nerves died a long time ago" Jade responded.
With a roll of his eyes Roy slipped back into his thoughts and Jade continued to pull her brush through her hair. If she were to be honest she would admit to Roy that it does hurt, not nearly as much as it did when she was a kid, but she still feels the pain.
The room was quiet again until she put down her hairbrush.
"You know, we're only about twenty minutes away from Vegas" Roy said, breaking the silence.
"So?" Jade snorted as she turned around "I thought you hated gambling"
"Not that, I was thinking Vegas has a lot of twenty-four hour wedding chapels" he suggested and Jade didn't know whether to panic or start laughing. She knew one thing though; Roy had gone off the deep end.
"I'm sorry but were you drinking tonight and I didn't notice? Or did all those dumpster fumes go to your head?" She sarcastically asked as he stood up, looking just a little offended.
"I'm serious Chesh, we've been together for what? Two years now?" He asked
"How should I know?" Jade snorted in amusement "we never went officially on or off record, but two years sounds about right" she added and now Roy walked right over to her and took her hands in his, the whole thing was beginning to scare Jade as she quickly realized that her boyfriend was both sober and dead serious.
"Exactly. We've been together two years now and I know that I am never going to leave you" he said and the next thing Jade knew he was down on one knee. "In the last few years you have been the only light in my life so Jade Nguyen, will you marry me?" He asked her, his voice taking on a slightly pleading tone partway through the proposal.
Jade wanted to say no, every single wall she had ever put up was screaming the word. But her heart, in her heart she so desperately wanted to say yes.
"Yes, now get up and take a shower" she giggled, yes Jade giggled, before pulling Roy to his feet.
At first Roy just looked dumbstruck, but the look was quickly replaced by a huge grin before he cupped his girlfriend's, no his fiancée's, cheeks and pulled her into him for a kiss. Their kiss was short but passionate and soon Roy rushed off to take a quick shower.
As she heard the water in the bathroom turn on Jade sat down on the bed, replaying in her head what had just happened. For a moment she thought maybe they shouldn't do this, after all if they were to get married wouldn't he want his family there?
What family? She immediately thought to herself. Roy doesn't have any actual family and he has no plans to start talking to his mentor again any time soon.
That was when Jade knew she was right; this is crazy. They were going to drive twenty minutes into Las Vegas and get married at four in the morning on Christmas Eve. It is by far one of the craziest things they have ever done. But then again they had never been a normal couple; they were a semi-retired hero and assassin for gods sake! Their first time 'taking each other out' had been when they were literally trying to take each other out.
It's too easy. Love doesn't come easy, especially not to me Jade thought to herself, but tonight her head was on a losing streak and less than an hour later, in a small and practically empty wedding chapel, she became Jade Harper.
