It hadn't been until it was close to 2:30 am by the time Jason Todd had found a suitable hotel for him to stay at. There was a slight bit of stress leaving him, as well, having no reason kick up any dust than necessary.

And as long as I don't bring any work with me, he began to muse to himself, digging with only half his mind with him. Then Supes shouldn't have any reason to come banging on my door.

Jason slid the key card through the slot and kicked the door open, scuffing the cream colored painted and leaving traces of Gotham's signature filth impact. He stumbled through the door and threw his small utility bag over on the nearby desk, made of cedar wood.

Keeping his thoughts together, even at that hour, wasn't easy for anyone not conditioned for it, like the 'bat-clan' had been. Tonight, though, had been special for Jason in that he was dog tired from the long night of staying focused on the road, having to constantly refuel with cheap gas-station coffee that, by and larged, lacked any real kick to it, save for the taste of rarely cleaned coffee makers and a cup that had been half filled with powdered creamer and sugar.

The next thing to leave his body had been his brown leather jacket, thrown at the nearby chair, next to the desk he'd thrown the bag at. Soon followed were his brown work boots. They weren't anything any respectable crime fighter would where for the sake of intimidation, but for on the fly operations, they were very durable. Aside from that, they offered an additional inch of height for anyone wearing them, so they did have their uses.

Finally came his blue jeans. Briefly, he'd forgotten that his belt was still on and they'd almost taken his red boxers with them, but he regained his senses quickly enough to prevent that from happening.

He laid on the bed and began to ponder, to wonder what would happen next.

"She kissed me," Jason muttered to himself, sitting at the foot of a bed adorned in a tacky green and violet comforter, head in his hands. The caffeine was close to finally running course.

Jason got up and walked towards his blue overnight utility bag and unzipped it. Reaching inside, he pulled out a comfort food that had been with him since before Batman had recruited him into his war: cherry pop-tarts. His hands made a zombie-like scramble to open it. The aluminum foil had caused a slight headache, it hadn't been the first to cause that type of thing that morning and he'd doubted very much it would be the last.

His prize finally unwrapped, he took a large bite out of it and the surge of sugar gave him new life, if only briefly. He quickly finished the first and began on the second before sitting back down on the bed.

"She kissed me," Jason repeated, burying his head into his arms. His mind raced with both the sugar and the anxiety. "It shouldn't bother me," he thought to himself, falling back onto the soft bed, garish bed. "It shouldn't, but…"

The idea of her, Kara, Supergirl, the maid of might, invaded his mind like only his deepest nightmares could. She was pretty, he knew that for damn sure. She was strong, so there wasn't much of a chance of her being hurt from his missions and given how outlandish they generally were, that was a major plus, but there was so much that could go wrong.

"You gotta think this through, Jason," he tried forcing himself to listen to reason, beginning on the second cherry pop-tart then. "You know how easily this could backfire?" he began pacing the room, his heart beat now erratic. "I mean, for one thing, she's Superman's cousin, for another… she's Superman's cousin. You even entertain these thoughts and space Jesus will be on your ass faster than Roy at lady's night. You know that, right?" He said to himself in front of the mirror in the bathroom and forgetting exactly how he'd gotten there. "But…"

"She kissed me…" he repeated a third time, this time looking himself in his bloodshot blue eyes. "But it doesn't have to mean anything, Jaybird," he began talking to his reflection now, the combination of the pastry and the exhaustion combining. "Grayson has done a lot more than kissing and he's still single, right?"

"But come on, Jason!" the reflection seemed to speak back. "You know for damn sure that she was right about you two just 'getting' each other! And I can guaran-damn-tee you that there ain't another hero that's been through Jason Todd levels of bullshit in their lives outside of the family and you know it!"

"What about Superman?" Jason asked himself.

"Screw Space-Jesus! Kara's her own damn person, Dumbass," the reflection said back. "And, aside from that, don't you think you've kicked your own ass enough about what you've done?"

"I got into some pretty shifty shit…" Jason trailed off.

"Oh boo hoo for Jason Todd! You know what you've also done?" Jason, or the reflection asked. "Saved the planet from War World. Saved Tamaran. Saved Gotham city legitimately. Let Barbara Gordon down hard so she won't be waiting for a phone call that won't ever come, and, now that I'm on that, made the sacrifice play so that she can be with someone that won't drag her down!" Jason raised his voice at himself. "So I guess the question really is…"

"When will Jason Todd start living for himself the way he's lived for others?"

"I…" Jason turned around and gripped his black hair. "I don't…" his pop-tart fell to the green carpeting and he ignored it, instead choosing to sit on the bed. "I don't know…"

He fell back and let the bounce of the spring mattress break his fall. The kiss was nice. He knew that much and he just as much enjoyed it as it happened, even if it had taken him completely by surprise.

"She kissed me," he whispered to himself again, falling asleep with the vaguest of grins on his face. "And I liked it."

…

Jason moved down the streets of Metropolis, his hands in his pockets and his head down. He'd woken up early that day, having only gotten five hours of hard fought sleep until, finally, his restlessness had gotten the better of him, so he'd opted for the gym on the first floor of the hotel. Nearly an hour of running and an odd, hodgepodge of 80's classics later, he was still only slightly less conflicted about what he was on his way to do.

I hate this town, Jason mused to himself, hoping to take his mind off of his new, self assigned mission by complaining.

It was true, though. Jason never really had any positive feelings for the city of Metropolis, though he'd be lying if he said jealousy had nothing to do with it. With how clean it was and how, while Gotham always seemed to have one foot in the 1920's, another in the industrial revolution and only one hand clawing it's way into the present generation. Metropolis was the exact opposite in every single conceivable fashion.

The city of tomorrow almost always looked like it was on its way to those pulp sci-fi stories he used to steal from Alfred back when he was still Robin, before he'd died. The air was clean, people hardly ever kept their head down and they were so unapologetic about where and how they lived that Jason could almost believe he was in a Disney movie. Lex Luthor acting as the cartoon villain the way only he and Disney, could. Gotham, meanwhile, made all it's residents look ashamed to even have it on their records, from where they were born, to where they worked.

To Jason Todd, it was like being raised his whole life on cheap beer and had, only upon entry into adulthood, discovered the wonders of a single malt whiskey.

"Well," Jason mumbled, having finally made it to the coffee shop. It hadn't been his first time getting a drink there, but it was only his third and each time he did show up, it was only to contact Kara on for a new mission he didn't trust his usual team with. "She'll know why I'm here," he continued, looking up at the sign that read 'Cafe' of Tomorrow'.

"It's not really much of a plan..." he second guessed himself for the last time as he entered the coffee house.

"But it's a plan."

The bell rang with a ding and it was obvious that, sense the last month he'd stopped by here, they still hadn't changed out the normal brass bell for an electric one, not that he could really blame them. Small businesses are what they are, after all, and if there was anything that made Jason's native hell hole like the city of tomorrow, it would've been that the laws of economics still applied, especially with small businesses.

"But I wonder how easy it'd be for them to make bank if they knew the one and only maid of might worked here…" he mused quietly, with a wry smile on his face.

That was when he saw her, for the second time in about 12 hours and relatively at peace and helping a girl and a guy, both kind of on the shorter side of things and handing them their iced coffee. Faking her smile like anyone with two braincells to rub together would working a job like this.

And here we go, Jason walked up to the counter. "Kara, hey."

Her eyes went wide for a half second and he knew then it was awkward for her as well. Well, at least we both don't know what the hell is going on. That's something.

"Jason," she hesitated. "Hello."

"Look, Kara, about last night-"

"Hold on, Jason," she raised her hand up and he stopped. "Right here is not really the best place to hold this discussion and I think you'll agree," she argued, then looking at her manager, several feet away.

"Two and a half minutes, Kara," she raised her hand with two fingers extended.

…

"Alright, I'm here," Kara stated, mostly bland but with a slight twinge of anxiety in her voice. "Did you want to start or shall I?"

Jason was at a loss. He usually knew what to do. He usually had some sense of control or direction or something he could plainly see or deal with. When he saw a murderer, he knew could shoot them. When he saw Tim or Damian, he knew could jerk them around. When he saw Roy, or when he saw Kori, he knew them, period.

But Kara wasn't Tim, Damian, Roy or Kori. Kara was a friend. Kara was an unknown and, more importantly than either of those things, she trusted Jason.

"You go," Jason answered, forcing a wry grin to hide his own misgiving about where they were and what they were doing. "Because, judging by the way you can't quite look me in the eye either, you got something to throw in to, right?"

She shot him a glare but instead of calling him out on it, only sighed. Two and half minutes an argument could not fit in.

"Jason, you do not have to worry about the kiss, alright?" She met him eye to eye. "Tention was running high and it was late. You're one of my best friends, so naturally I'd try to find comfort in that when I felt the way I did," she shrugged. "It doesn't mean anything, alright? It was just the heat of the moment."

"Well…" He trailed off as he rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. "Here's the kicker, Kara…" he forced himself to look her in the eye for this part. "Maybe I wouldn't mind if it was more than 'the heat of the moment'?"

Kara's eyes went wide and then narrow. "What are you saying, Jason Todd?"

"Hell of a question, Kara," Jason admitted, now looking everywhere but her. "But…" he sighed himself. "Look, Kara, you and I both… we get it, right? Like, we both know what it's like to be the bastard understudy to bigger guys and we both… well, we get it, right? You get what I'm saying?" She looked at him, fighting back a smile and losing. "We just… you and I have an understanding and it's like what I have with Kori and Roy. There's no judgement, right? I see what happened to you, you see what happened to me," he continued to ramble and she began to stroll closer to him. "And we don't hafta make-"

He was cut off by an abrupt peck on his lips.

"Pick me up around Midnight?" Kara asked, her hand cupping his chin.

"Sure, great," Jason stuttered, now having to tilt his head back to bring her eyes into full view "I'll bring the ferrero rochers?"

"And I'll bring the red wine," Kara finished as she turned around and headed back to her work.

"Wait," Jason began to smile mischievously now. "Isn't underage drinking illegal?"

"Isn't being a gun toting vigilante?" She answered without turning around and with an audible smile as she reentered the door to the cafe of tomorrow. If Jason Todd hadn't known any better, he would have sworn he'd seen her skip as the bell rang and greeted her.

…

The first thing Jason did when he got back to his hotel room was take a long nap. The date wasn't going to happen until midnight, after all, so he had plenty of time to recoup any loss of REM shut eye that making the trip to Metropolis had cost him in the first place. Although it wasn't as if the sleep was easily won. Jason still had the odd nightmare to contend with and the last thing he needed was worrying about a date with a cosmic level superhero that could bring down half the world by herself if she'd felt the inclination.

Fortunately, Jason knew that she'd never do that. Kara was a lot of things, including hurt frequently and misguided often, but she saved going out of her way to hurt people for only two people in the whole wide universe and both of them were on the other side of said universe. At least as far as Jason knew, at any rate.

The second thing he did was revisit the shower and make sure it was as long and as hot as he could without it burning the already abused, scared half of his body. He used Old Spice, though it was less due to the preference of the smell and more because he actively hated the Axe commercials. Upon exiting the shower, he looked at his stubble covered face and decided that it might not have been a bad time to shave, although he did debate it. He didn't know whether or not Kara was the type of girl to like the extra scruff on men, but in the end, he reached for the razor and made a go of it. He never grew his facial hair right anyway. It always came in in sections and the sidebern's whisker's would never ever actually connect with whatever it was that his chin and upper lip was doing.

After the shower, the third thing on his list, aside from getting a cheap sandwich from the local Burger Fool, was finding some appropriate clothing for the occasion. Even if Jason had been wearing a clean shirt, he was, the point remained that he knew for a fact the shirt he'd been wearing had to have the blood stains bleached from it several times over by this point.

He needed new clothes.

It was nearly six o'clock by the time he made it to a local tailor, run by an older black woman with the care only a small business woman could offer both her work and her passion. She'd tried to set him up in a red shirt, but Jason insisted on white. He'd worn enough of that color during his night job and he prefered it if his off-time wasn't marred by the same hue. She'd also found him a pair of linen black pants and an old, refurbished jacket, both of which only needed slight repair and alteration, and with an extra $100, the older lady was more than happy enough to get it done within the next few hours. Although the idea dawned on him that she had the vaguest of inklings what Jason's plans were, they both kept it to themselves. Jason because he wasn't the most chatty with non-criminals on the best of days and her, he guessed, because men like Jason was more than likely where she'd earned the big money to pay for her grandkids education.

But it was just a guess, and not even a well thought out one at that. Still, he needed something to keep his mind occupied until his date later that night. He needed to find a place that would be open that late. He needed to find out what his plans were afterward. Jason had ideas, but with everything that had happened to his love life in the past, from Essence and to Isabelle and how he refused Barbara, he could only ever wonder if he was doing the right thing by even asking her out like this.

It was the question that rattled and railed against his mind with so much force that Jason began to wonder who, exactly, was right between the two of them: himself for wanting to make sure no one got hurt from being in his life?

Or Kara, who asserted he should live for himself just as much as he should live for others.

…

Jason didn't know that Kara asked for the rest of the day off from work to prepare for the date, just like she didn't know her manager would say yes. It was just like how Siobhan didn't know Kara would drag her from New York to Metropolis to help her with her mad plans of dating an outlaw hero.

But I guess that's the fun of not knowing, Kara mused internally with a vague grin on her face.

"Alright, Kara, I got news fer you," the white haired punk rocker exposit to Kara, not taking her head out of her closet as she did so. "You got no worthy dating clothes!"

"I get that, Siobhan, thank you," Kara retorted, getting up from her small chair and moving some of her clothes to the side of the closet to help her friend see better. "Isn't that why I called you here?"

"Aye," she agreed. "But still, ye've got to gimme somethin' to work with, Love. Else ways you might as well go in your work uniform," she paused. "Nevermind, knowin' how in depth you've figured out Earth, you probably would, wouldn't ye?' Siobhan finished sarcastically.

"Do you know what this Jason likes, Kara?" she asked after several more seconds of fumbling through Kara's admittedly small closet. "Classy, grungy, normal date attire? Church casual? Throw me a bone, Lass!"

"Well…" Kara began to tap her finger on her chin and thought for a moment. "To be honest, he reminds me a bit of you when it comes to style."

"Aye?"

"He rides a motorcycle and likes leather, but I've never actually seen him outside of…" Kara thought for a moment for the right word. "Work."

"Work work or Overtime work?" Siobhan went t specify.

"Overtime work," Kara caught her meaning. "So I suppose that I should defer to your judgement, Siobhan. When you're on a date, what do you like the other to be dressed like?"

"Hehe," she chuckled. "That's a question, isn't it? I reckon that I'd like somethin' that blurs the line between classy and metal, far as I figure."

"And that works?"

"Well, I'd be out for something a might more casual with less farsightedness, if you catch my meanin', Kara," she shot her a wink.

"What?" Kara asked, crossing her arms.

"You know, havin' 'im' make me hit the high notes."

"Is this a music thing?" she asked innocently. "I didn't realize it was Earth custom for musicians to perform for their dates."

"Nah, Love, I'm talking about my 'guest'," she said while making air quotations. "strumming my g-string."

There was a brief silence before Kara spoke up again with her voice still like a rock in a desert.

"So you teach your date how to play the guitar?"

"Mary mother of Christ, Kara!" Siobhan let out a laugh and had to keep herself from falling down. "I mean, good god, girl. Haven't you ever…" she caught herself, having evidently realized the problem. "Kara, are you a virgin?"

Her eyes went wide and she looked away. "What sort of question is that?" Her face turned bright red. "I mean, why would you think that I… well, I've never…" Now at least she understood what all those strange expressions Siobhan said meant. It wasn't her fault she never took the time to learn about the goings-ons and cultural norms of Earth's more sensual side. "I've been busy, with the JLU and with the Crucible academy, not to mention work and looking after my cousin's-"

"Yer hot cousin's," Siobhan added with a sly smirk.

"My hot cousin's," Kara glared at her. "My cousin's city with him gone doing Rao knows what. Finally having…" she stumbled for the right word, looking off to the side and rubbing her upper arms up and down. If she was being honest with herself, this type of thing was something she had little experience of for herself even back home on Krypton. There was always something else for her to do that kept her from ever making the first steps for the effort, from preliminary military education, preparing her for when she eventually joined krypton's guard, to help her father with his many side projects and baby-sitting the then infantile Kal-el.

"I got ya, Kara," Siobhan reassured her, wrapping her own arm around the petite girl's shoulder. "Don't ye worry, Girl. I'll make sure you'll get the deed done, or my name is Blake MacAteer."

Kara looked down, unsure of what was about to happen or whether she even wanted it to happen like this. "Siobhan?"

"Yes, Lass?" she replied back.

"Thank you," Kara expressed. "Even if it doesn't go as well as I'd like, or you'd like,, thank you for trying."

"Thank ye for not kickin' me out after I made an arse of meself," she pulled her closer for a one armed hug and then separated. "Now then, we got to make ye look presentable, and trust me, Kara, we got a long way to go."