It was early in Gotham and for once it was a cloudless sky, the sun beamed down on the corrupt city as people busied themselves.
A small cafe sat at the corner, a block away from Robson Park. The sounds of cars honking, people shouting and cursing at each other, if he was was being honest with himself, he's missed it. Spending time traveling around with the outlaws has been great, but he's a city boy and always will be. He's missed the little bits of home, even if he didn't particularly like Gotham much, it was still where he learned to survive.
He sighed as he brought coffee to his lips and enjoyed it as the warm liquid warmed his cold body. He's had funny looks thrown his way for a while now; not that he can blame them, its nearly hitting 40c and here he was in black jeans and a red hoodie.
"I see your still a weird person Z" Jason's attention drifted to the woman standing in front of him.
Her wavy black hair, split in the middle, fell perfectly down her face just stopping short of her jawline. She wore a simple white baggy long tank top with big gaps at either side, showing some of her ribs and black bra off, said top, was slightly tucked into some dark grey denim shorts and wearing a pair of black and white vans.
Around her neck was a simple, silver pendent of a bird, while she had her bike helmet tucked under her arm and an 'off the wall' rucksack on her shoulder.
"Hannibal" he sighed.
Her smile showed off her white sharp teeth, teeth that could tear through flesh and break bones with ease. She pulled a chair out and sat down, a waitress came over asking for an order, Misha smiled flirtingly and ordered a coffee, the waitress had a slight blush as she left them, Misha's gaze following as the waitress walked away.
"God, your worse then Dick" he groaned into his drink.
"Pfft" Misha leaned back into the cheap leather seats. "I only do harmless flirting now and then." she shrugged.
Jason leaned back into the seat, still holding his drink with both hands. Misha's face was blank as she looked at him.
Considering she wasn't related to Bruce she sure had picked up some of his worst traits.
Exhibit A.
Misha stared at him with no emotion.
To be honest, he's seen Talia do that a few times, so it might not just Bruce to blame
She opened her mouth to say something, but when the waitress came back with a pleasant smile on her face and handed Misha her coffee, Jason didn't miss the way she blushed slightly when Misha's delicate fingers brushed hers.
"Thank you" she smiled sweetly.
The girl nodded and gave a smile in return and left, looking over her shoulder a little as she left. Misha pulled the piece of paper off from under her cup and looked at the number written down with a frown.
Jason raised an eyebrow. "Not gonna call?" he mocked slightly.
"No, it's no fun when they bite" she gave a halfhearted excuse, -I don't like intimacy- he read between the lines, not that Jason can blame her.
She looked at him, light Jaded orbs stared back at him. "You want it?" she asked completely innocently.
Jason looked at her and shook his head ."No thanks, don't think I'll be her type"
Misha grinned. "What? Not interested cos she's not a badass, hot-redheaded amazon?"
Jason nearly choked on his coffee and gave Misha an irritated look, in turn, she just gave him an even bigger grin. "Because I'm not a girl" he was not touching the amazon comment with a 10-foot pole.
Misha just snorted and stored the number in her back pocket. "Maybe Dick will have it" she mumbled.
He didn't want to think about how he and Artemis have gotten closer. But first and foremost, she's his teammate, and dare he says it, a friend, and he was not going to fuck that up. Having friends in his life was hard enough if he told her how he really felt…
God, he didn't want to think about it. Be too embarrassing if she turned him down in the typical Artemis way. He rather just stay as they were, her friendship meant too much.
"Did you get what I asked for?" he cleared his throat. Trying to change the subject.
Misha rolled her eyes, a little disappointed at the lack off banter.
"Don't get yeah panties in a twist Sweeney" Misha pulled a folder out of her bag, and discreetly slid it over to Jason; he grabbed a menu and slid the folder inside of it. When he opened it a frown made its way onto his face.
"What's this?" he asked looking up.
"That's all I could get" Misha spoke into her mug.
"There's hardly anything here"
"Like I said that's everything there is." she leveled him a look. "Hell, even the B-computer didn't have anything on it" she hushed.
Jason sighed and continued to look at a single piece of paper. All that the had was speculation on what could be in the new drug that's putting a lot of people in the hospital, or worse, the morgue. The new drug has been dubbed as 'crash' due to the way it attacks the human body.
After the high of the drug wears off you have a massive crash afterward, after that it starts to shut the body's organs down and causes internal bleeding, brain functions shut down and it practically burns all of the nerves off.
So far fatality has been 100%.
Jason hates it, its spread through the Bowery and the Narrows like wildfire. The deaths have varied between ages, gender, and ethnicity.
"Whoever is giving it to them is good. So far the only people who could identify them are dead. We don't even know if they're a people who have survived this." Misha spoke as she looked down at her mug.
"Shit" he slides the file back over and slouched in his seat.
"My thoughts exactly." Misha looked at him after she placed the folder in the bag, she looked at him, searching his face and what she found wasn't great.
"When was the last time you slept?"
"I sleep plenty" he shot back without hesitation and if he was taken off guard by that question he didn't show it.
Misha frowned even more. "Actual sleep, asshole. Not when someone knocks your arse out like I'm tempted to do" she growled lightly.
Jason snorted and looked at her. They started at each other intently, both refusing to back down. The seconds where ticking and still neither backed down.
Stupid stubbornness.
"Jason ser-"
"I'm fine Misha" he bit out, cutting her off. He looked at her again and narrowed his eyes at her.
"When was the last time you had some rest?" he challenged, part of him said just to be and dick. and another part said to because she did look like shit as well, however after years off experience shes great at hiding it.
If he didn't know Misha as well as he does, he would have missed the way her body stiffened, or the way her breath hitched a little, she quickly covered it up as she growled lowly, showing very sharp canines.
She pushed herself into the seat as best as she could. "You know how it is" she hissed quietly, anger slipping into her voice. And giving his a look of murder.
Yeah okay, maybe that was a dickish move. he mused.
Jason sighed and put a hand through his hair. "I just want to get this case over and done with"
Misha closed her eyes for a second. "Jason, I'm serious, I want to help you, I just want to know how you're doing truly" voice clam as she spoke.
Jason looked at her long and hard. "like I said, I just want to get this case finished with. And if I have to lose sleep over it, then so be it"
The look on Misha's face told him that she didn't buy his bullshit. He saw her pupils dilate nearly into slits and the way she bit the inside of her lip a bit.
Great, she's even more pissed. He thought sourly.
Misha slowly got and looked down at him. "follow me" her voice was dead calm.
Jason sat there for a minute, and slight dread filled his gut.
Fuuuck shoulda got out while I still had the chance
There was no way he was gonna outrun her, she would track him done in an instant, he got up and slipped his and Misha's money down on the counter and smiled sweetly at the same waitress, she smiled back at him and watched as Misha walked away.
Misha walked down the street and turned to an ally, there sitting in its glory was a modified, black Suzuki Gixxer SF. Misha stepped over the unconscious thug who tried to get at it, without a care in the world.
"How'd you get here?" She asked as she put her helmet on.
"Walked" he put his hands in his pockets as he stood at the mouth of the ally.
"Close safehouse them." She smiled a little and side-eyed him.
Reflexes saved him from having a helmet-shaped bruise on his face. "What's this for?"
"Cos I don't want the Joker to get jealous that I managed to cave your head in by coming off my bike, then he could with he crowbar" she watched as he stiffened this time and gripped the helmet a bit too tight.
"All is fair in love and war" She growled lowly.
Yeah okay, I guess I deserve that one.
He let out a breath and place then helmet on and sat behind Misha, holding onto the curve of her waist and she shot out of the alleyway with a devil-may-care attitude.