"So her majesty has finally decided to grace us with her appearance."
Charlie stuck her tongue out as she settled herself against the ledge of the roof. She faced Dick and Jason, all three of them standing on top of an abandoned warehouse in an isolated part of Gotham. It's been a total of two weeks since Charlie went back to Crow. Two weeks of her fighting every urge to throw up from the sight of him. Two weeks of Jason spending more and more time in his gym, pounding away his boiling frustrations. Two weeks of no progress. Except now.
"Missed me already, Jaybird?" Charlie winked as she opened the lid of her can of beer. "And here I was thinking that all of those teen magazine tips were just for show."
Jason rolled his eyes. "What I miss is putting fucked up men like your daddy into prison," he muttered. If it had been how it was the first time he met her, he might have not hesitated to lower his voice. The word "daddy" wouldn't stop him from using his voice. But something changed now. For some reason, he didn't want her to hear him. Not only did he want her to get upset, but he didn't want to be the one to make her upset.
"If we're done with this week's lovers quarrel," Dick said, gaining some glares from the two. "Why'd you call us up here so late Charlie? Are there any updates on Crow's shipments?"
Charlie's lips curled into a smirk as she pushed herself off the ledge. "As a matter of fact, there is a huge update. Last night I heard Crow talking to some of his men about the location of the drop off. It's happening at 11 PM at the Gotham harbor. This Thursday, so in three days. It's happening boys!"
Jason's smirk matched Charlie's as he picked himself off the crate he was sitting on. "Well it's about fucking time you did something useful," he teased as he reached for another can of beer. "Let's go do some Crow hunting."
Charlie rolled her eyes at Jason's attempt at a pun, but she couldn't contain her excitement. It's all happening.
"Can I get you fine group another round of beers?"
The three of them, or rather Dick and Charlie, decided to celebrate their progress at a local bar. Charlie insisted on getting celebratory rounds, while Dick decided that they needed a change of scenery. Jason, on the other hand, wanted nothing more than to go home and enjoy the silent company his guns. But three words by Dick was all it took to convince him otherwise: Drinks. On. Me.
The trio sat at the corner table in Perry's. They already went through several shots of Vodka, and the only one that seemed to be feeling the affects was Charlie.
"I would love another glass of Vodka. Not another shot. A glass. Don't go easy on me just because I'm ninete-"
"What my friend here means is," Dick quickly said before Charlie could blurt her age, "she's done. She is done for the night, and I think that we all are."
The waitress smiled sweetly and nodded her head, while leaving to attend another group.
"Kill joy," Charlie teased, pouting at Dick.
"You'll thank me once you sober up," Dick laughed. "The last thing you want right now is to ruin our celebration by being escorted out for being underage."
Charlie pouted even more and turned her attention to Jason, who was still sipping out of his bottle of beer. "You'd let me drink more, right Jaybird? You saw how fun I am when I have a drink in my hand. I'm fucking hysterical. I'm amazing. I'm-"
"You're drunk," Jason bluntly cut her off, still holding his bottle tilted against his lips. He took a few more sips before placing it on the table, along with a few crumpled dollar bills. "You're drunk and I'm bored. Partying in Gotham is always a disappointment. I would be having more fun chasing guys down alleyways. Or even at home cleaning out my guns." He put on his jacket and stood up from the table.
"Sorry that Gotham isn't exactly the party center of the world." Dick checked his watch and got up as well. "I think our celebration went on a bit longer than I wanted it to. It's already 1 AM. I should head back before Damian uses this outing as an excuse to stay up even more."
Jason rolled his eyes. "Going to check on the Batbrats? What am I supposed to do with this one?" He motioned his head towards Charlie, who was resting her head on the table and humming herself a song. "I can't drop her off by Crow's house and trust her to walk herself home.. I'm not even sure she'll make it five steps without falling on her head."
Dick laughed as he rummaged in his pocket for his keys. Luckily for him he only had one bottle of beer hours ago, and was able to function and drive. "Then I guess it's a good thing you have an apartment that is not too far from here." He grabbed his jacket and headed towards the exit, before turning back after a few steps. "Oh, and a nice king size bed," he teased his brother. He gave him a sly wink and walked away, leaving Jason to groan and curse his name as Charlie continued to hum to herself.
The hard part wasn't getting Charlie to stay awake, or getting her to walk. It wasn't even getting her to walk up the stairs of his apartment. The hard part was actually getting her to stop talking.
"-and that is why I hate baking." The fifteen minute walk home felt like thirty minutes to Jason. Charlie was telling him story after story, none that really interested him. But to his relief they were finally at the door of his apartment.
"Fascinating," he replied sarcastically. Jason struggled with putting the key in the hole. One of his arms was occupied with trying to keep Charlie standing up. After a few moments of frustration, he finally got the door to open. He slightly pushed Charlie into the apartment and guided her to the couch, where she quickly made herself comfortable.
"Did I tell you that I dyed my hair?" Charlie grabbed onto one of the pillows and hugged it. Jason gave out a low groan as he walked towards his refrigerator for a bottle of water to give her. There was no way he wanted to deal with a hungover Charlie first thing in the morning. He made his way to the cabinet that contained all of his medicine. He looked around for some Aspirin, but was quickly caught off by the mess. He barely went into the cabinet the past few weeks, and yet it looked as if someone knocked over several of the bottles. Along with the spilled bottles, the cabinet seemed to be slightly emptier than he remembered. Before he can process what he was looking at, he heard Charlie's obnoxiously loud yawn.
"I mean of course you knew- you made that cheap shot when we were playing that stupid drinking game," Charlie continued, "But I mean I dyed it again. Black this time. You know, my natural hair color. No more brown streaks or whatever. Just fully black. So now I look more Asian than I did before- you know if you don't count my freckles. Or my green eyes. But besides that I am more Asian now. Not that I know Chinese or anything.. It's just the hair. Black hair. Bla-"
Her rambling got interrupted as Jason threw her a cold water bottle. Before she can make any remarks on how rude that was, Jason plopped down next to her on the couch and handed her some Aspirin. "Take this," he said annoyed. "Take this and then for the love of god go to sleep."
Charlie squinted her eyes at Jason, ready to give him an earful. Before she can, however, she noticed the two pills placed in Jason's palms. Even somewhat drunk, she still felt her subconscious telling her that she shouldn't take them. When she went back to Crow, she swore to change her life. She knew that once they put him away, she would be all alone. She couldn't go on with life as a drug addicted prostitute. She needed it to all stop. Besides secretly quitting her job at the club, Charlie quit taking any drugs. Or at least she tried to. Everyday she told herself that this was it. This was the last one. But the very next day it happened all over again.
Still, the last thing that Charlie wanted was to give up on herself. She tore her eyes away from the two little pills and focused on the eyes directly in front of her. Hell, she thought to herself. What did this boy do to be gifted with those eyes?
Her admiration over Jason's eyes were quickly interrupted. "You know freckles, the sooner you go to sleep, the sooner I can go have some piece and quiet."
Charlie kept her gaze, unfazed by his words. Normally, she would have a witty comeback ready to fire, but she couldn't bring herself to it. She finally broke her stare and looked at her surroundings. It has been two weeks since she was there, and yet it still felt like she never left. It felt strange her to, but at the same time it felt right. This small apartment that she only spent a few days in felt more like a home to her than what she had for years.
"I, uh, I dyed my hair," she whispered, struggling for the fist time in a while to find her voice. "I just needed, um, a change. I... I couldn't go back there like everything was the same. So, so I just dyed my hair. I thought that maybe, just maybe, I can..." Her voice trailed off as she finally looked back at Jason, who was staring at her. He didn't have the annoyed look anymore, and he didn't seem to be in a rush to get her to sleep. He just looked at her, patiently for her to finish what she was saying.
"I thought that I can have some bit of control if I just changed something," she finished. She thought about everything she was telling him, and suddenly realized that she might sound like an idiot. She laughed at herself and buried her hands into the palms of her hands. "I know, it's dumb and stupid. It's just hair. I don't know why I thought that this was going to do anything. It's not lik-"
"It looks good."
Charlie lifted her head out of her hands and opened her mouth in shock. She expected him to tease her, ignore her, get up and leave, or even tell her to shut up and go back to sleep. She didn't expect a compliment from him. They may have had a few civilize moments before, but Charlie always considered Jason as the one that will always give her some shit. The simple compliment caught her off guard, but it also made her happy. She didn't know why, but hearing him say that her hair looked good made her smile and even blush.
"You keep interrupting me," she said smilingly, "you jerk."
Jason shrugged his shoulders and stood from the couch. "Are you going to thank me or are you going to insult me?" He offered his hand out to Charlie, which she accepted.
"Thank you," Charlie muttered, still with a smile on her face. She stood in front of him now, remembering how it felt like to stare straight up into those blue eyes. Bluebird. Jaybird.
"So do you want to finally put me out of my misery and go to sleep?"
Charlie let out a scoff and grabbed the pillow to hit him. "You really are a jerk, you know that?"
Jason yanked the pillow away from Charlie and lightly shoved it in her face. "Write a song 'bout it Freckles. Now get in the shower."
"Excuse me?" Charlie pushed the pillow out of her face and glared at Jason.
"You reek of tequila," Jason clarified. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't stink up my apartment with it. You can go shower in my room and I'll give you some clothes to change into."
Charlie bit onto her lip, while still holding onto her glare. She was too tired to shower, but she did admit that her own scent was nauseating her too. "Fine, but you better have warm water." She pushed past him and headed up the stairs, towards his bedroom.
Jason smirked to himself. Even if she annoyed him to no bounds, he did find some joy in returning the favor. He was about to go get her some clean clothes, when something struck his mind again. He hasn't opened his medicine cabinet in weeks. Even when he got shot, he didn't need to go into the cabinet because he always used the one in his weight room. So why would there be a mess in the cabinet? Why did it seem like something was missing? Being trained by the Dark Knight himself made Jason prone to every little detail. It also made him think of twenty different plausible situations in a matter of a minute.
Jason walked towards the cabinet again, his hand just about to pull on the handle when he heard the sound of his shower starting. He stared at the cabinet, debating if this was something that should get to him. Ultimately, he decided that the best scenario was Dick or Charlie searching through there when they were taking out his bullets. Nothing else in his apartment looked out of place. There were no marks of anyone getting in through the windows, and his alarm systems haven't gone off at all. Maybe it was just Dick and Charlie..