A/N - I wrote this fic for JaySteph Weekend 2022. Day 2 Prompt - College

Steph half-heartedly wound her way through the hot, noisy room stuffed with dolled up college students screaming to be heard over the deafening bass thump of the music. She carefully navigated littered red solo cups, dancing couples, and the occasional sprawling limb as she followed her pack of friends towards the back of the house, wrapping her arms tighter around her waist as she walked.

It was too loud and everyone was too drunk - except her friends, since they'd just arrived - but they were on a single-minded mission to find the keg. She breathed a sigh of relief at the fresh air when her friend group finally burst through the back door and out onto the deck, which was also crowded but at least a little cooler and marginally quieter. She listlessly trailed after them towards the beer, figuring she'd take a cup just to maintain appearances.

Light was spilling from the brightly lit kitchen out onto the deck, but Steph's eyes were still drawn to the flicker of a cigarette lighter in the farthest reaches of the back yard - a flicker that briefly illuminated the face of a person who was as out of place at a college party as she felt. What the hell?

"I see a friend of mine," Steph yelled over the raucous party noise into her nearest friend's ear. "I'm gonna go say hi." Jenny nodded and Steph left behind the line for the beer to make her way off the deck, instead, into the grass. Maneuvering here was a little easier than through the throngs in the house and at the keg, at least. She picked her way through more scattered groups of people as she headed to the back fence, where the lonely smoker seemed to be deliberately avoiding the crowds.

His eyes landed on her as she approached and his eyebrows went up. For a minute, he looked almost nervous.

"Jason!" Steph smiled up at him. An answering smile reluctantly flickered around the cigarette dangling out of his mouth. "What are you doing here?" Steph asked cheerfully as she moved closer to give him a hug. A hug which Jason clearly wasn't expecting, going by how sharply he inhaled and how quickly he tugged his cigarette out of his mouth before her arms found him.

"Are you on a case?" Steph whispered in his ear as her arms wrapped around his chest in a friendly squeeze. Jason exhaled smoke on his chuckle as he slipped an arm around her waist.

"Nah," he said. Steph stiffened, even though Jason's pecs were cushioned like muscular marshmallows.

"Oh, my God," she hissed. "B didn't send you here to spy on me, did he?" Steph grabbed Jason's face with both hands and stared at him in horror. Jason gave her a considering look.

"No," he said slowly, letting her go out of his half-hug. Steph exhaled a sigh of relief and rather reluctantly dropped her hands, missing the feel of stubble against her palms as soon as it was gone. She'd been single for a while, ok? Dating and Batgirling didn't exactly mix. The fact that Jason was hot as hell had nothing to do with it, of course.

"So why are you here, then?" Steph asked him, crinkling up her forehead.

"Same reason as you, I guess," Jason answered somewhat cynically. "I'm pretending to be a normal college student." Steph's mouth fell open.

"You're in college, too?" she gasped. "Since when? What are you studying? How did I not know this?" she demanded all in one breath. Jason sighed.

"I didn't want anybody to know," he muttered as he looked off to the side. Empathy pierced Steph's heart. Jason was a private person and Steph had seen him shy away from B's prying attempts at good fathering more than once, deflecting questions as easily as blows from wannabe crooks.

"I won't tell," she promised him, reaching out to take his hand. She squeezed his fingers tight in reassurance. Jason squeezed back - and didn't let go.

"Thanks," he said in relief as his face relaxed. "English lit," he went on. "That's what I'm studying," he explained. Steph's smile grew bigger.

"I'm not surprised. Do you love it?" she asked him.

"So far, yeah," Jason smiled back. He swung their hands a little bit back and forth and Steph's tummy suddenly did a Dick Grayson-worthy somersault. "Don't love this party, though," he groaned. Steph giggled.

"Me neither. Why'd you come?"

"Ehhh, one of the guys in my study group is hosting it with his roommates," Jason sighed. "He invited me. I didn't wanna be rude. Plus, I'd never been to a college party before, so I figured, what the hell?"

"God, same," Steph said with feeling. "My PT cohort friends would NOT leave me alone about never coming out with them, so I figured, fuck it. Within the first five seconds of being here, I wished I'd stuck to my guns and said no." Jason snorted.

"Sticking to one's guns is very important," he smirked down at her.

"Mm, you would know, wouldn't you?" Steph teased right back. "Mister Hood," she leaned closer to breathe right into his ear.

Jason laughed, deep and throaty. Steph shivered and involuntarily clutched his hand a little tighter. Jason's eyebrows shot up. He slowly tilted his head down to really look at her. Steph stopped breathing as his eyes searched hers out in the shadows like B sweeping a crime scene for clues, until he deliberately gripped her hand back with a slow, sexy smirk spreading across his face. An answering smile crept onto Steph's lips with her exhale, and then Jason flicked his cigarette away and let his free hand drift to her waist.

"Can I ask you something?" Steph said hesitantly as she lifted her left hand up and began running it over his pecs while her right hand stayed intertwined in his. Jason nodded. "Why don't you want anyone to know you're in college? I think they'd all be supportive," she said, frowning despite the utter delight and wonder of being held by Jason Todd.

"That's the problem," Jason said bitterly. His thumb began tracing nervous mindless patterns over the back of her hand. "They'd get their hopes all up for me and make such a big deal out of it, and you know how our lives go," Jason sighed.

"Sooner or later, something's gonna come up that I can't bullshit an excuse for, and I'll end up missing deadlines or final exams and dropping courses or dropping out," he said flatly. "And then I'd have to deal with all of B and Dick's disappointment and pity on top of it. No thanks," he muttered.

"Oh," Steph said softly. "That makes sense." She trailed her hand up from his chest to his cheek instead, cradling his face.

"Yeah," Jason grunted. "Not that you don't face similar pressures, too, but -"

"But Babs and B can work around my exams and the team doesn't suffer if they don't call me in," Steph quietly acknowledged as she gently stroked her thumb over his cheekbone. "Nobody's able to cover some of your stuff but you."

"Yeah," Jason agreed, unable to hide the little smile that was forming from Steph's tender touches. "It's easier for me this way."

"Are you upset I found out?" Steph asked him softly.

"Not in the slightest," Jason breathed out over her lips.

Steph sighed into his kiss, warm and soft and happy, as squiggles of electricity crackled down to her toes. She barely registered letting go of Jason's hand so she could wrap both arms around his neck as he deepened their kiss, stroking his tongue into her mouth with lazy urgency, slowly mapping out what made her whimper against him.

Jason's arms wound tight around her waist as he pulled her closer into him, and Steph had never in her life felt like she belonged anywhere as much as she did in that moment, in Red Hood's arms. Her fingers tangled up in his hair as they made out in the shadows, on the outskirts of the crowd where they inevitably ended up, no matter how hard they tried to fit in.

But living on the fringes suddenly didn't seem quite so bad when she had a fellow outcast to share it with, Steph realized.

"I feel like the college student thing to do would be to leave the party and go hookup," Steph announced when they finally came up for air.

"Oh, absolutely," Jason grinned down at her while his hands caressed her back. "We deserve the full college experience. Except, sweetheart?"

"Yeah?" Steph smiled up at him.

"Screw one night stands," Jason roughly declared.

"We definitely don't need to be that normal," Steph sagely agreed.

It was probably not normal at all to take bets with your boyfriend on which member of his family would be the first to figure out they were dating (not counting Cass, who of course realized immediately), but not even Cass figured out that Jason was in college until he was passing out his graduation announcements several years later.

Alfred threw a magnificent party at the manor for him, but it paled in comparison to Jason's private celebration later that night with one Mrs. Stephanie Todd.

The End

A/N - Thanks for reading! You can follow me on Tumblr at River9Noble

You can find all the JaySteph Weekend Event works on Tumblr at JayStephEvents