OKAY! I don't think I changed as much as I thought I would but I think it is a lot better now though regardless. I don't think it'll ever be my favorite story by any means but that is okay, I am in the process of writing a different story about these two as I may have a slight obsession, only it'll be like a super slow burn enemies to lovers thing
Three months later
The world still thinks Raven is dead. It took me and Cyborg a complete three hours to convince Robin that we should leave it that way. Not that I have enjoyed seeing all the memorials and the heart broken little girls who had favored me. The guilt of being alive and watching them grieve me is a lot sometimes. Though, I thought this opportunity would be the best for me to get out of the hero life without getting pulled back in or a target on my back. I have spent the last three months working through the trauma of everything that happened. Though I wasn't awake with what happened with Conner, my body remembers, my soul self remembers. It took me a couple weeks to calm my powers down enough for them to happen normally and not heightened in fight or flight. Because of what we uncovered at the school the Dean gave Rachel Roth a degree in English. He broke some rules to do it though as long as I passed the three tests required he could do it. I did. Flying colors. The same bracelet I used before rests on my wrist daily to conceal my identity. I use the degree to get a job at a library. On the weekends Jason and I buy food and care packages with the money he gets from selling items and we hand it out to the homeless people around this side of town. I walk down the street that leads towards my apartment, my hand connecting with Jason's. His eyes never stop bouncing from person to person. Looking around us like he is expecting to be attacked at any moment. I don't sense anything but I know it is a habit for him.
"I think it was a good idea to try again. Maybe they were having a an off day that one time" I say, he stops his peering and smiles down at me.
"Maybe they got a new cook, if they didn't they should have" He says, I laugh shaking my head.
"They were good this time! He learned!" I reply as we turn the corner of the street. I can see my apartment window from here. A small black cat sitting in the window waiting for me.
"Does Grim know that you look different but are the same person?" Jason asks seeing her in the window as well.
"Cats mainly rely on smell, so my image probably does confuse her a little but I smell like me regardless so she knows it's me. I think she also has learned to recognize both forms" I say, he nods looking at her she looks like such a different cat than what I saw in the shelter with him. We were there to talk to a contact of his but I saw her and had to have her. I don't think Jason realized how much I love cats.
"How do you know so much about cats? Didn't you say Grim was your first pet?" He asks, I laugh
"I have always loved them though! Plus I had to research it" I admit, we both look both ways before crossing the street and do so at a slight jog before slowing back down when we have gotten across. We make our way into the complex and take the elevator up to the fifth floor. Jason doesn't take a hand off of me the whole time. If it's not holding my hand its a hand on my arm, on my waist, or the small of my back. It's been long enough that I feel as though I could never get sick of this.
As soon as we open the door the excited squeaks and squawks from Grim fill the space. I smile down at her picking her up and cradling her giving her kisses on her little head. She purrs and rubs her face into mine. I smile against her head. She is really is so different from when I got her. Her long fluffy fur matted in numerous areas, one of her eyes was glued shut with infection and her open eye full of sadness and betrayal. She wouldn't come out for a month when I brought her home.
"Hello my sweet girl" I say, she purrs louder as I scratch behind her ears. I let her down on the ground and she trots away to her scratching post.
"So when are you going to want to move in with me?" Jason asks leaning against the counter. I smile as I walk around to the fridge opening it and pulling out a bottled water. It's something I have wanted to think about, though right now I am not sure if it's the right time. I am practically just getting my independence. I am in a year lease as well, not like I can just leave.
"I am in a lease right now, so not for another nine months at least" I say, he scrunches his nose and shakes his head.
"That's a long time" He replies, I laugh taking a swig of the cold water.
"We have forever with each other Jason, nine months is nothing" I say, he looks me over, I am not sure if he is thinking about how much he loves me or thinking about undressing me. Either way I don't mind it too much. "Are you staying the night?"
"I got to work tonight" He says, I smirk and shake my head "I won't hurt Cy okay I remember the deal"
"Good, let me know if you get it for me" I say he winks, Grim jumps onto the counter he leans across rubbing her face on him and leaning against him with her body. She waits for him to pet her. He does and her eyes squint into a sweet look of happiness. She loves him. He pretends that he isn't a cat person but I can tell he loves her. "I have to work early tomorrow anyway"
"Are you going to be off in time to hit the store?" He asks, I nod
"I get off at one, so we should be all set. How much do you think the painting will get you?" I ask
"Easy mil, I can put half in the account for our future and then a quarter into project care package, and then keep a quarter for me" He explains, I keep forgetting how much the item he sells are worth. "Do you think Robin is going to drop trying to find me?"
"Probably not, Jason Garrette vanished. He won't be able to find you though. It probably kills him inside. He hated that you got the suit. Hated it even more than you have been able to avoid us for so long" I tell him, he smirks. He stole the suit to annoy him on purpose. He could have come here as Red Hood, which is how he annoyed Batman. He did this purely to annoy him. It worked.
"Do you think Starfire and Robin are dating again?" He asks, last I heard they were. It took them two months for her to forgive him the rest of the way and to trust him again. I don't know anything else about them. Cyborg doesn't tell me much about them on purpose when we chat. "Last time I X'ed Starfire to a pillar and Robin about shit his pants"
"Yeah what is it with that? You did that to me so often. Is it a kink?" I ask he laughs, leaning back his eyes closing as he does so. "It's kind of sus Jason."
"With you? Yes. With her? To annoy bird brain" He admits after he finishes laughing, I shake my head rolling my eyes with a smile.
"It never annoyed him that much when you did it to me. I guess that should have been my first sign that I shouldn't have stayed with him for so long" I admit, recalling all the times Jason managed to pin the both of us. Starfire would get released first and Starfire was who would cause such an angry reaction from him. Another reason maybe that I wanted to look more like her when I went undercover.
"Is that why you enjoyed me breaking jaws for you so much?" He asks, I press my lips into a hard line
"Possibly"
Jason and I spend another five years together in Jump. After about three of those he retires Red X leaving the suit on the doorstep of the Tower. After that Red Hood took over, stealing even bigger bounties and making even more money. He did this under the promise that he would no longer kill anyone and that the money he makes goes towards helping people and for savings. A lot of it he donates to shelters of all kinds. It is the only way I can feel less guilty about being with the very type of people I used to fight against. He doesn't seem to mind the change in morals. After the five years we both decide that we should go to Gotham. Do the same thing there.
It lasts another three years there before Batman and now Nightwing find out who Jason really is. Batman set a trap for him at a place knowing he would steal it. They took off his mask and his glamour ring. After days of him not coming home I got worried and sensed him there. I still remember the look on Dick's face when I teleported into the cave. He looked like he had seen two ghosts that evening. He looks me over his lips parted slightly his suit still on but his mask discarded onto the table in front of him. Batman sits in front of an older man carrying a tray of tea and pastries in a protective manor. Even though he knows who I am he doesn't relax.
"Rae...what are you doing here?" Dick asks, I look towards the direction of the room I know Jason is in.
"You captured Red Hood" I say plainly, he nods and then looks back to Batman who doesn't take his eyes off of me. Dick looks back and walks forward to me but I take a step back.
"How did...you know that? That doesn't answer what you are doing here. It's been years since I have even heard from you" Dick says, I sigh my eyes bouncing between the three men in here.
"How did you get in the cave?" Batman asks
"I teleported."
"How?"
"I teleported to Red Hood and it took me here" I admit, Dick shakes his head rubbing the bridge of his nose with pinched fingers.
"Why are you here for Red Hood?" He asks, I pause not sure if I wanted to out myself so soon.
"He's my husband" I admit, Batman doesn't hide his shock too well and Dick hides it worse. His jaw going slack and his eyebrows pushed together in a tight furrow.
"Husband? So you know who he is? You know what is behind the glamour? Why the hell didn't you tell me?" Dick asks, I suck in a deep breath and walk towards the door that Jason is behind, I use my powers to rip the door open. Jason is tied to a chair and when he looks at me his eyes softly close in relief. Untying him he gets up walking out of the room with me.
"It wasn't mine to share. He asked me not to so I didn't." I answer Jason rubs his wrists which had to have been sore from how tight the ropes were.
"You didn't feel bad for not telling me that my little brother is alive? You married him?" Dick asks, I scoff
"If I felt guilty for not telling anyone it was Batman."
"He's been stealing Raven, expensive priceless items." Batman replies he tells me as if I wouldn't know.
"I know, the money has been the reason the homeless population has decreased in this town. Now I don't expect you to stop chasing him. I don't expect you to be okay with any of this. But If you kidnap my husband again you will regret it." I warn, Batman moves from his spot looking towards Alfred. Who the whole time hasn't seemed that shocked. Not that I don't know why. He's known Jason was alive since before I did.
"Raven how long have you known?" He asks, I look back at Jason, I will let him take this question. I don't know what he wants out there. His cover already being blown and all.
"She's known since you sent her in as bait and I had to fight four guys to get to her. She didn't know right then but around then. Once we escaped Conner's warehouse she found out. I am the one that actually did something when she was shot twice and almost beaten to death" He says, I haven't thought of that night in so long that the thought it churns my stomach. The more Dick finds out the bigger his look of betrayal gets. "Did you get the suit back by the way?"
"You mother fuc-"
"Enough Dick." Batman says, he looks to the two of us and sighs shaking his head. He is fighting against every fiber of his being. I put a hand on Jason's though he's behind me and I get ready to teleport out. I don't, not yet. "thank you Raven"
"What?" Dick asks
"Dick before Raven got involved with him he was killing people and selling these items to worse people. I don't agree with how he is doing it. But he is changing things in a good way. He hasn't killed someone in a long time. He didn't kill Conner though he could have and had every reason to." Batman says, Dick huffs glaring at the two of us.
"Did you marry my ex girlfriend to annoy me?" Dick asks, I scoff shaking my head.
"I married her because she is my entire world. She married me because I did better at making her feel safe in every possible way than you ever could or did. Not everything I do is about you Dick. I know that's a hard pill to swallow" Jason replies, I look between them again and swallow hard. Dick huffs again and charges forward in anger and I teleport out with Jason. Squeezing through the small hole of time and space and landing back in our house. Jason looks at me a sadness taking over his expression. He wraps his arms around me tightly. "Thank you for getting me. Sorry I got caught"
"Don't apologize. Figure out what you want to do about this, we will do whatever you want" I tell him.
It takes another year or two before it goes smoothly but Jason wanted to stay. He wanted to try to work things out with Batman mainly but eventually Dick comes around as well. Red Hood becomes no longer a criminal and instead fights along side the bat family. I help when I need to but for the most part I don't. Over the years Jason changes more, his gloomy mood changing to be lighter more carefree. Having his family back and no longer have to hide in the shadows did more than I thought it would for him. Gives me the validation I need to know we both made the right choice.