Barbara woke to the soft morning light creeping through the slitted blinds of not her bedroom. As she checked out her surroundings in the day (a mattress, a dresser and an open closet with two jackets in it), she realized that this was the first time she was seeing it — Barbara never did make it to Jason's bedroom the night she dressed his wounds thanks to discovering his secret and running like hell. Hell, they barely made it to his bed last night after what happened in the living room.

They were making out like teenagers. All open mouths and hands and standing there in the middle of the room like it was her front porch and they didn't want to say goodbye just yet.

It had started with her kissing him to stop his nervous rambling from spoiling the moment, but she never bothered to pull away. His arms seemed to naturally curve around her waist and somehow her shirt had made it to her feet and her hands went from his face to his bare shoulders and … it just felt good. And new.

Last night was impulsive and fast, but tonight felt slower. She could explore their embrace. Experiment even. Because it turned out he was responsive to just about every little thing she did.

There was power in it: the way his pupils dilated when she pulled off her tank top to reveal her lacy little black bra. The way he shivered when her fingers scratched against his bare chest. The way he sighed hard when she started sucking on his tongue. And when she pulled back ever so slightly, (letting their kiss hover in sweet torturous suspension) to undo his belt and let his jeans slip to the floor, he whimpered. The mighty Red Hood actually whimpered.

Barbara grinned — he might have been holding her up, but she was in the one in control, she was the one setting the pace and it felt outstanding. Nothing was quite as satisfying as kissing Jason Todd into submission. She owned him in that moment and bit his lip a little for emphasis.

And then Jay's eyes snapped open. For a moment they bore into her, blue blazing with something stormy and carnal and all-consuming. Before she knew it, she was on the hard linoleum, pressed down under his weight. She squirmed in an attempt to roll back on top and get back the power. Jason fixed her wrists over her head, stilling her.

"Bad little Batgirl," he growled against her jaw, "Bad little Barbara." A chill went through her and she was reminded of how it felt being in Hood's presence when he was just Hood and not Jason. She shuddered and thought to reply, but then his mouth latched onto her neck. Okay, maybe giving up control has some perks, she thought fleetingly while his free hand started to roam to her bra. He teased her nipples through the fabric for only a few moments before placing his palm on her stomach.

"Jay …" she moaned and tried her best not to keen up towards his hand.

"Mmm," he breathed out, his hand creeping under the elastic of her sweats, "Tell me who makes you feel good."

"You do." It came out as a whisper. "Jason, you do."

"That's right." His fingers dipped into her underwear, making her gasp when he reached just short of her core. "You like what I do to you, don't you?"

"Yes," she said eagerly, just wishing he get to the good stuff.

"You like my mouth here…"

He sucked the spot just under her ear.

"And my cock here…"

He rocked his still boxer-covered erection against her pelvis.

"And my fingers here…"

She cried out loud as his index and middle finger slipped over her clit and inside of her. She struggled to move her hips, to speed up the moments of his digits to get her where she needed to be. But his leg stayed in place over hers, his cock still pressed hard on her hip through the layers of fabric.

"Please," she panted, "Jason, please."

"You're mine," he said, curling his magnificent fingers tortuously slow.

"Yes," she gasped and squirmed, "Yours." Anything. Just let me come.

"Be my girl."

"Yes." So close.

"Be my partner."

"Ye—" She was halfway through the word before it really got through. She couldn't even say if she stopped the word herself because it was in that instant that his thumb brushed her clit and his thick middle finger pushed firmly against that one spot and her world shattered in the most perfect way.

The orgasm continued in hazy waves, her core clenching and unclenching against the fingers still very much inside of her. Her brain stayed fuzzy post-bliss (Jesus, that never happened to Barbara) and she didn't realize his fingers had left her and her pants and underwear had been ripped away until she found herself straddling Jason's lap.

"Barbara," he whispered, his cock jutting out of the opening of his boxers, "ride me." It wasn't a command — it was a plea.

Still on that dizzy high, she smiled into a kiss and eased herself down.

Everything blurred together after that. His cock filling her. Breathless, barely there kisses became shorter and shorter. Flashes of Jason's blue eyes captivated her. Yes she was on top and she set the pace, but that hand on her thigh and that hand on her waist urged her on with firm squeezes, the waves steadily building and building until—

An incessant beeping cut through the silence of the morning, blinking Barbara back to the empty bedroom and reality. She reached for the boxers and Jason-sized t-shirt at the top of his (hopefully clean) clothes pile by her side of the bed, the phantom aches throbbing in her bones like they did every morning since the shooting. And then she moved out of the room and towards the noise.

It's cleaner than I remember, she thought absentmindedly while she turned off the coffee maker alarm. Maybe because it was the day or maybe because she hadn't just come out of a fire, but the kitchen looked less like a squatter's den and more like a kitchen compared to the other night. Even the family of roaches were gone, which she was especially grateful for as she grabbed the seemingly clean mug by the sink, stole a packet of sweetener from the cabinet and fixed her coffee.

It was strange to think it had only been a day and a few hours since she had been there last, trying to find the first aid kit to tend to mysterious Red Hood's burns. Speaking of the mysterious Red Hood, she suddenly had a feeling she knew where to find him, if only by process of elimination. She scrounged up another mug.

Barbara rapped her knuckles on the windowpane, careful not to spill the contents of either mug, and managed to catch his attention. The cigarette dangled from the corner of his mouth as he pulled up the window with both hands, the cool morning air creeping into the apartment.

"You're up," Jason said as he settled himself back down on the fire escape.

"Clearly," she smirked, kneeling down on her side of the window and holding up the mug in her right hand. "Still take it black?"

He couldn't snatch it fast enough, but it took a moment to organized his cigarette/coffee combo. It gave her a little time to appreciate that he was only wearing a pair of pajama pants and looked pretty damn sexy for this early in the morning, with his stubble and his bedhead and his lack of a shirt. He was too busy to notice her wandering eye.

"Oh man," he sighed once he took a sip. "You're my hero."

She rolled her eyes. "You made it. I just poured."

"Doesn't matter. Still my hero."

Charmer. She tried to hide her smile behind her mug, but wasn't sure how successful it was. "What time is it?"

"I don't know, like," he peeked at his phone, "5:15?"

"That's a little early for you, Jay," she teased.

"Hey, I like getting my nicotine in early." He took a long drag for emphasis. "Besides," he exhaled up and away from her, "I like sitting out here at sunrise." He pointed at the sliver of space between two neighboring buildings — the sun was just starting to peak over the skyline. She moved forward to get a better look, her forearms on the sill.

"Nice location you got here, Todd," she said while hiding her smile with her mug.

"Well, you know how it is," he waved his hand, his cigarette drawing light smoke through the air, "You go apartment shopping, the building might be decrepit and the upstairs neighbors are probably crack dealers, but the view!" He held up his hands as if to show the glory of their scenery.

"You have crack dealers above you?" She asked.

"Had. Turns out it's easy to get rid of dealers when you break one of their arms and put a gun to the other's head." He rolled his cigarette between his fingers. "Come to think of it, that's been one of my main talking points when dealing with people since coming back."

"See, I find the knee to the groin method to be quite effective. No blood stains."

"But Barbie, it's so much harder to do when you have your own equipment to imagine in that situation!"

They laughed and it was easy to laugh. It was easy to keep the conversation going. It moved from intimidation moves to fighting styles to their old favorite pizza place that closed down to inexplicably—

"Jason, no."

"Barbara, yes," he said with a smile.

"There is no way I promised you a porn night back when you were Robin."

He let out a short laugh. "Why would I lie to you about this?"

"Because you want me to watch porn with you! Clearly!" She let out a sigh that was more dramatics that anything.

"You know," Jason said, "you keep saying you didn't agree to it, but I'm not hearing you say no now." He waggled his eyebrows and bit his lip, making her blush. Jason Todd was too cute for his own good. And his stupid abs weren't helping her flusteredness.

"I think it's too early to be making plans like that," she said lamely.

"Still not a noooooo," he said melodiously. There was a moment of silence before they both started laughing. It was the kind of laugh that took over her whole body, shaking her until her sides hurt. Barbara had to put her head into her forearm to calm down.

"Oh god," she practically giggled, "I missed this."

"Me too," he said with a smile. Then he cleared his throat.

"You know," he said, looking down at his 2nd cigarette of the morning, "We could do this all the time."

"Do what?" She said as she finally started to catch her breath.

"This," he motioned around them. "Go out at night, kick all kinds of ass, come back here to fuck like rabbits—" Opened her mouth to speak, but he kept going "— and then wake up to morning coffee and sunrise conversations."

"Jay …" she trailed off, expecting him to interrupt her. Instead he just looked to her with those pretty blue eyes, so hopeful and open and she was reminded again that this was really Jason. She was handling the situation better that expected to be frank, but over the last day since he took off his mask the hard truths — Jason Todd is alive, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Jason Todd made love to her — hit her in waves. And it was surprisingly easy for her to accept these truths as real in her life. Maybe because the truths of her world were already bizarre. Maybe because she just wanted the truth to be something wonderful for once.

"It's … it's not that simple, Jason."

"Why can't it be?" he asked. "We have a chemistry in the field; you know we had it back in my Robin days, but this week proves it's still there."

"That's … that is true."

"We've trained together, we know each other's strengths," he paused, "… and you can't say the sex isn't fucking incredible."

He sighed out the last two words and gave her that look. The look. The kind that blazed through her and made her feel like more than just Batgirl. Barbara was taken back to hours before as she rode him, his body quivering against her as they sighed out a slow, heavy orgasm together … foreheads touching, eyes locked. Maybe the best sex of her life. In the top three.

"We're … we're very different, Jason," she finally got out, trying to banish away the far too happy memory.

"Don't opposites compliment each other?" His voice, his smile was meant to tease her, but one fact blasted through her brain.

"Jason … you kill people."

He scowled. "For christ's sake, are we back to this?"

"Don't act like this isn't important!" she snapped right back. He opened his mouth to speak, but stopped himself mid-thought. They sat in silence, Barbara fiddling with the loose string of her shirt.

"Can I ask you a question?" Jason asked. When she didn't answer, he continued. "Your dad uses a gun."

"That isn't a question."

"Your dad carries a gun," he pointed at her, "which you refuse to use yourself."

"Jay—"

"You're a hacker," he continued, "which he could arrest you for. But despite the gun and the hacking, you work with him even though you don't use the same methods, right?"

"I—" she started, but her reply sort of died in her throat. Well … shit.

"I'm not saying we don't need compromises," he leaned forward so his forearms rested on his knees, "I know you still don't like killing and I won't stop using guns altogether. But you have to admit, I've been on pretty good behavior since we teamed up. Keeping it mostly non-fatal. Going for the shoulder wound instead of the head. Using restraint unless I absolutely need it."

"And let me guess," she said, her tone harsh, "you've been working really hard on it."

"No, not really," he looked from his cigarette up to her, startling her with the sweet sincerity in his eyes, "That's the funny thing about this whole week, Barbie — it's been surprising easy pulling back the methods when it comes to working with you. Like we're meant to work together, even."

Be my girl.

Be my partner.

You're mine.

She wanted to disagree. Hell, she wanted to get pissed. She wanted to ask him when he'd become sentimental, when he'd started believing in something as stupid as fate. She wanted to tell him that she remembered last night and that newsflash, promises she made while orgasming meant jack shit outside of the bedroom. But— there was something else to it. The feeling she got working with him. Fighting back to back with him. The rush. The way they just … fit.

"So," he bit his lip, "what do you think?"

He was right — they worked well together. They cared about each other. And the sex was incredible.

"I want to keep going," she said finally, "with this."

"Yeah," he said, his smile growing, "Yeah, definitely." He scooting on his knees towards her.

"This is still new to me," Barbara explained.

"New, of course," he nodded again, eying her mouth with a hunger in his eyes she couldn't ignore.

"I'm still trying to find my bearings," she stammered as her heart rate getting faster, "now that you're alive. I need baby steps."

"Baby steps," he said softly, still focused on her lips. He was leaning across the windowsill, just a breath away from her. When did he get so close?

"Jason," she sighed out, her breath catching in her throat.

"Barbara," he said as his lips finally brushed hers, "Don't think." And then they connected.

Her empty mug was forgotten on the floor as they kissed, his tongue and mouth doing those evil things she was only now learning to anticipate before her mind turned to complete mush. But then he had to move his hands to cup her jawline and all thoughts fizzled away to one word: MORE. As if he heard her, Jason's fingers trailed down her neck, moving lower and lower until.

A BEEP BEEP BEEP came from the couch.

"My phone," she said still mostly kissing him.

"They'll leave a message," he muttered, trying to pull her back into the moment, "Just a few more minutes." But Barbara was already getting on her feet and moving towards her pants pocket.

Jason was scowling while he moved through the windowpane. "Who fucking calls someone at 6 am," he gritted out, the words muddled as he rubbed his face in frustration.

"Jason," she said, still looking at her screen, "It's a message from Dick."

Her partner stopped mid-complaint. "Oh."

"Yeah," she said, exhaling. "We know where they're meeting."

AN: There will be two more chapters, with the last one being an epilogue, so heads up. Thanks to everyone who has been following along with the story so far - I hope you like the rest of it.